Cross Your Fingers
by weasleyFOEVA
Summary: Natalia Cruz is a sixth year Gryffindor, best friend to the Weasley twins. When she decides to enter the Triwizard Tournament, she doesn't know what's in store for herself. She may die, she may live in eternal glory, and she may even find love on the way. Title inspiration from a song by The Summer Set. Rated M to be on the safe side and for possible future chapters.
1. Chapter One

Natalia inhaled the familiar smells of The Burrow as she stepped through the front door. The Burrow had been more of a home than anywhere else the past few summers and she finally felt at ease. She didn't have too long to prepare herself before she was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by Ginny, the only daughter of the Weasley clan. Even though Ginny was three years younger than her, they got along well and she was one of Natalia's best friends. "Good to see you Ginny, but if you don't let go of me, I might die of suffocation," Natalia said, a smile still on her face.

"Sorry, sorry," Ginny said, letting go of her. "I'm so glad your dad agreed to let you come to the Cup with us!"

"Well, he didn't exactly understand what he was agreeing to." She began speaking in a deep voice, imitating her father, "What is this Quidditch rubbish you're talking about? As long as I don't have to give you any extra money for it, you can go. And don't go getting yourself blown up, you hear me?"

Natalia's father still wasn't exactly thrilled that she was a witch. She had found out since then that she had been adopted during the years of the war and her actual parents, who were a witch and wizard, had given her up to a Muggle adoption agency because they didn't want anything to happen to their daughter. She didn't know who her actual parents were. All she knew was that her father was not happy that ten years after he and her mother adopted little one-year-old Natalia, strange things such as owls delivering letters started to occur.

"Well, it's wonderful you could come. It'll be nice having another girl around besides Hermione. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with her-" Ginny was cut off by Natalia.

"I understand what you mean," Natalia said, and the pair giggled a bit as two familiar-looking, identical redheads made their way, rather enthusiastically, toward where Natalia and Ginny were standing in the kitchen.

"Ah, we thought we heard your laughing," George said.

"Very distinct, it's pretty hard to miss Talia's laugh," Fred added.

Natalia rolled her eyes, pulling the pair into a hug. "Hello boys," she said, grinning. She lowered her voice. "How's that top secret stuff going?" She winked. Both the twins' eyes lit up at the mention of this 'top secret stuff.'

"Oh it's going fantastic, actually!" George said.

"Yeah, thanks to you! You have some bloody brilliant ideas, Talia," Fred said. Natalia blushed.

"Oh, it's nothing really. Glad I could help out my favorite pair of gingers," she said, laughing. The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up with the Weasleys. Later that day, shortly before dinner, Hermione flooed in with her trunk and a pet carrier with Crookshanks in it.

"You know, that cat is going to hate you if you keep making it floo places with you," Natalia noted as Hermione opened the pet carrier and Crookshanks ran out of it and up the staircase as fast as he possibly could.

"Oh, he's fine with flooing. I really don't think he minds it too much," Hermione said, smiling and hugging Natalia. "How was your summer?"

"Oh, it was wonderful! I sat at home and watched TV almost the whole time... And I've got some juicy stuff to tell you and Ginny later." She winked.

"Oh, sounds interesting! I can't wait!" Hermione said.

"Oh dearies, dinner is ready. Hermione, you can leave your things here. Arthur can take them upstairs after dinner for you!" Mrs. Weasley said, coming into the living room.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Hermione said, and the group went into the kitchen to enjoy some Weasley cooking. After dinner, Fred, George, Natalia and Ginny decided to go outside and play a two-on-two game of Quidditch. Fred and Natalia were on one team and George and Ginny on the other. Hermione and Ron sat under the big oak tree in the backyard, half watching the game and half lost in each other's company. They played until well after sunset, and the group was covered in dirt and sweat, panting and exhausted. If it had not been for Mrs. Weasley calling for the group to come inside, they probably would have still been playing.

"You know, we make a pretty good team," Fred said, breathing heavy as he wrapped an arm around Natalia's shoulder.

"Yeah, we definitely creamed them," Natalia said, laughing. "But if you guys don't mind, I call first shower!"

She wasted no time, leaning her broomstick up against the house and taking a glance back at the group following her into the house. They were all frowning and Ginny was running after her, probably to get the next spot in line to shower. Natalia ran upstairs to Ginny's room, rummaging through her trunk and finding a towel, an oversized t-shirt and a pair of shorts.

She closed and locked the bathroom door behind her, turning on the hot water. The hot shower felt amazing as she let it run over her tired body. She could tell she was going to be sore in the morning, but it was well worth it. That was one of the best games of Quidditch she'd played in a while. It was also the first one she'd played since the school year ended. Sometimes, she hated being Muggle-raised. It meant that she was almost completely out of touch with the magical world for three months out of the year.

When she got out of the shower, she threw on her oversized t-shirt and shorts, quickly braiding her hair behind her head. She went into Ginny's room, dropped her stuff off on the bed, picked one of her favorite Muggle books out of her trunk, and walked downstairs and into the living room, where the twins were sitting and talking in hushed voices. They hadn't showered, but it looked like they had at least made an attempt to clean up, and they were both wearing pajama pants and t-shirts.

"Am I interrupting something?" Natalia said, raising an eyebrow at the both of them.

"Not at all," George said, returning the expression.

"Good," Natalia said, laying down on the couch that the twins were sitting on and stretching her legs out to cover the both of them. "When Ginny's done in the shower, I'll leave you two to talk business again, but for now, I'm fairly comfortable where I am."

"Merlin Talia, when did you get legs?" George said, gaping at her. She looked to see that Fred had a similar expression on his face and she felt a blush creep up her face.

"I've always had legs, thank you very much. I just choose not to show them off," Natalia responded matter-of-factly.

"Well you should wear shorts like that more often," Fred said.

"It's definitely fitting for you," George said, and they both smirked.

"Stop it," Natalia said, smacking the twin that was closer to her, it happened to be Fred, lightly on the shoulder. "You two are so embarrassing sometimes."

"Oh, but we only speak the truth," George said. Natalia just rolled her eyes and shook her head, then took out her book and began reading.

"Reading for fun? You're turning into Hermione," Fred teased.

"I just like reading Muggle love stories, is that so bad?" Natalia defended. "Like in this book, the guy falls for his best friend and she doesn't know it until prom when they dance together. It's rather sappy, but it's cute."

"What's prom?" The twins asked simultaneously.

"It's a dance that Muggles have in school, it's a bit like a ball I suppose. Same concept," Natalia explained lamely. "Everyone gets dressed up and they eat food and dance and it's supposed to be really fun."

"Sounds interesting." George commented. Natalia just nodded and began reading. "Well, I'm off to go write Alicia a letter. She wrote me one a few days ago, it's not polite to keep a woman waiting." With a wink and a wave, George disappeared up the staircase without another word.

Fred pulled out a book of his own, The Master Book of Master Pranks, and began reading as he and Natalia fell into a comfortable silence. Twenty or so minutes later, Ginny came down the stairs and said, "Talia, you still have to tell me and Hermione all about this 'juicy stuff' you promised," she made air quotations with her fingers.

"Oh, right! I'll be right up, meet you in your room," Natalia said, smiling. She looked over at Fred and ruffled his hair. "Night Freddie!"

"Juicy stuff, eh? Why wasn't I informed?" Fred teased, raising an eyebrow.

"Because it's girl stuff. You don't need to be hearing about it," Natalia said, getting up and climbing up the stairs. When she opened Ginny's door, she was met by two very eager looking teenage girls. She hurriedly sat down on her bed, her legs crossed, and wasted no time in getting into the story. "So I met a Muggle boy this summer."

Both Hermione and Ginny made an "ooo" noise before Natalia continued.

"His name was John. He was a total sweetheart and he played guitar in a band. I mean, I knew I would have to break it off with him when I came back to school. There was no way I could explain why owls were sending my letters rather than the mail and long distance relationships don't work anyway, but it was amazing. I had a summer fling!" She squealed excitedly at the end. "I do miss him, though. I wish there was some way I could have stayed with him, you know?"

"That would be a bit difficult," Hermione said, and Natalia and Ginny agreed.

"You didn't lose your virginity to him, did you?!" Ginny asked.

"No of course not, Gin. What do you take me for? I'm not going to have sex with someone three months after I met them. I want my first time to be special; I don't want to meet some boy and decide to lose my virginity because he's hot," Natalia explained, then in a lower voice she said, "but he was pretty hot." The trio went into a fit of giggles.

The girls spent the remainder of their night talking of boys, relationships, and their summers. Natalia learned that over the summer, Hermione and Ron had moved forward. She felt that it was only a matter of time until he told her that he had feelings for her. Or at least, that was how he was acting. Ginny was still working out a plan on how to figure out things with Harry, but she was confident that she would figure something out.

"I know you will, Ginny… and if you don't, you can always hex him into oblivion," Natalia reassured her, and the end of her reassurance sent the group of girls into a fit of giggles.

"Hey, no one will be hexing my best friend," Hermione defended, finding it hard to speak through her laughter.

This talk continued until the sky was slowly starting to get lighter. They supposed it was probably around five in the morning when they decided that they should get some sleep and Natalia found herself falling into a peaceful sleep in no time. She knew that even if she didn't feel completely accepted in her own home, she was welcomed with open arms in the Weasley home, and that was the biggest relief ever to her.

**_Thank you so much for reading the first chapter! I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave some feedback because I'd love to know what you guys think so far. I know it's only the first chapter! (re-edited on June 13, 2013)_**


	2. Chapter Two

**_Hey guys! I know I didn't get any reviews yet on Chapter One, so I figured I would post Chapter Two and maybe help everyone get a little bit of a better idea of the story. It hasn't really picked up yet, the first few chapters are sort of an introduction and they set up the whole story! Thanks so much for reading! (re-edited June 13, 2013)_**

The next few days were spent similarly to the first Natalia had spent there. She played Quidditch with Ginny, the twins, and Harry once he'd arrived, and Ron joined in one game. She gossiped with Hermione and Ginny as well as helped the twins plan some of their products. It had been a good few days, and tomorrow would be the best out of any of them because they were going to the Quidditch World Cup. She had never actually watched a professional Quidditch match before. She had merely seen the other houses playing matches whenever she wasn't. She was extremely excited to see the match. All the Weasleys explained that it was probably going to be much more interesting than the matches at Hogwarts, which just fueled her excitement that much more.

Mrs. Weasley spent the entire day before the Cup reminding everyone to pack and make sure everything was ready to go because they were getting up early the next morning. Instead of listening to her advice, they all sat around and talked of the match until well after dinner. It was only ten when Mrs. Weasley sent them upstairs to their rooms, promising they would thank her tomorrow morning when they had at least a few hours of sleep.

Instead of going into Ginny's room – she'd had her things packed for the Cup for a few hours – she decided to go into Fred and George's room with them and help them stay on task while they packed. She knew that they weren't very good at staying on task unless it involved pranking someone or causing mayhem. She was right in doing this, because they simply complained and procrastinated about packing instead of actually doing it.

"Talia, why do we have to pack?" George whined, laying on his bed and covering his face with a pillow.

"Stop being such a baby, George. You only have to pack for one night. It's not that bad. You pack up your whole life and leave for Hogwarts every year," Natalia reminded him.

"Correction: mum packs for us," Fred said. "If I had to pack my own things, I don't think it would ever get done. I'd be on the train with one set of clothing and that's it."

Natalia rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you'd leave all your things and bring just your wand to school. No books, no robes, nothing." She sighed before continuing. "Well, I'll pack your things for you for the Cup because I'm such a good best friend. You two are going to regret not getting to sleep early, you know. Your mother is waking us up at four or something like that... did I sound too much like your mother there?"

"A little bit," George admitted.

"I was thinking more of a wife, but mother works as well," Fred decided. Sometimes she felt as though she _was _their mother with the way she looked after them, and when they were at Hogwarts, this feeling increased at least tenfold. She felt that if she didn't look after them, something bad would happen. There had been a few instances of this occurring already, which simply caused her to watch after them even more.

"So, what do you think the big news at school is that all of the adults seem to know about?" Fred asked, completely changing the topic of conversation as Natalia opened up one of their drawers and grabbed a backpack from their closet.

"Maybe they've finally fired Snape," George suggested, shrugging.

"Doubt it," Natalia said. "Dumbledore won't sack him no matter what he does. He could probably kill someone and he'd still be there."

"True," Fred said, trying to think of something else that it could be. "I got nothing."

Natalia threw in a few t-shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, some pajamas and a few other items for the boys before zipping the bag up and throwing it on the floor between their beds. "You should be all set," she said, smiling. "Now really, go to sleep. I promise you'll be thanking me if you do."

"You sound like mum," George said, rolling his eyes.

Natalia stuck her tongue out as she left their room and crept as quietly as possible down to Ginny's room. This would have been kind of possible if the old house didn't squeak with every noise she made. It seemed that the slower she moved, the more noise the floor and stairs made as she moved.

She finally gave up on trying to move slowly when she thought she heard Mrs. Weasley moving around upstairs, and started running towards Ginny's room. When she opened the door, she found both Hermione and Ginny already in bed and the only noise that Natalia could hear were the crickets outside. She quickly changed into pajamas and climbed into bed, excited for the day that was to come.

She felt as though she had just closed her eyes when she was being shaken awake by Mrs. Weasley. "Natalia dear, it's time to get up," she whispered, and went on to wake up Hermione. She saw Ginny sitting up in her bed, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," Natalia whispered back to her, and started to get ready for the day. She debated taking a shower, but decided that it would take too much effort and time. Instead, she decided she would just put her hair up in a messy braid and throw on her clothes. Once she'd done that, she grabbed her bag for the night and went downstairs.

She threw her bag down on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, where it seemed was the designated spots for everyone's backpacks, and sat down at the table between Fred and George, neither of whom had changed out of their pajamas yet. Mrs. Weasley had already set breakfast on the table, and there was a faint light coming in from outside that told Natalia that it was just before sunrise.

"Up before the birds, we are," Fred mumbled, stifling a yawm.

"It'll be worth it, won't it?" Natalia said, grabbing a muffin and taking a bite out of it.

"Now make sure you lot don't eat too much, you've got quite a walk ahead of you before you go to the Cup. Don't want to be weighted down too much," Mrs. Weasley advised them. After breakfast, they spent another twenty minutes waiting around while the twins both decided that they would take forever to get ready and Ginny tore the house apart looking for something that she needed to bring – what it was, Natalia had never figured out. They were soon out of the house and on the way to the Cup, however, long before the sun had finished rising.

After they had begun their walk, Natalia was very grateful that she had taken Mrs. Weasley's advice. The sun had finally risen completely and it felt like they'd been walking for hours. Apparently the entire group felt this way, because Ron groaned and said, "Aren't we there yet? We've been walking forever!"

"Almost there," Mr. Weasley said for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Are we walking to the Cup?" Harry asked.

"Oh no, the Cup is miles away from where we are! We're walking to a Portkey. They're set up in different areas around the country, the closest one just happened to be a bit of a walk away. Not much farther now though!" Mr. Weasley said. "I think I see the Diggorys! Amos, Cedric!"

Natalia saw two figures in the distance, one of which waved back at the mention of his name. She figured that one must have been Amos Diggory, Cedric's father. The other one must have been Cedric, whom Natalia wasn't too keen on seeing due to the humiliating loss that the Gryffindor team had suffered to the Hufflepuff team the previous year. She figured the looks on the faces of Fred, George, and Harry reassured her that she was not the only one who felt that way. Despite these feelings, she gave Cedric a friendly wave when they approached him and his father.

"Is this all of us? No one else coming?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"I don't believe so! The Lovegoods left a few days ago since they had cheaper tickets, and I don't believe anyone else was able to get tickets," Mr. Diggory replied.

"Alright, well we're scheduled to leave in a couple minutes, so everyone look around for the Portkey!" Mr. Weasley said.

Everyone spent a few minutes looking around the hill that they had gathered on until Cedric called the group over, "I think I found it!" The group gathered around what looked like a very worn out, old boot.

"I think that would be it, my boy," Mr. Diggory sat, patting his son on the shoulder and grinning at him.

"Now you're going to feel a slight pull somewhere around your midsection. Don't let go of the Portkey. You'll know when you're supposed to, though," Mr. Weasley explained as everyone gathered around the old boot.

Natalia realized the 'slight pull' that Mr. Weasley had described was quite the understatement when she felt her feet lift from the ground and a strong pull around her belly button. She felt as though she were flying and spinning at the same time, and while it was an exhilarating feeling, it sort of made her want to be sick. Needless to say, when her body made contact with solid ground again, no matter how roughly of a landing it was, she was thankful.

"I don't feel too well anymore," Natalia said, her face a light shade of green.

"Good job, you lot! Did much better than I did my first time with a portkey," Mr. Weasley said loudly to the group.

"I remember I got terribly sick my first time, so well done!" Mr. Diggory added.

The group parted ways with the Diggorys as they checked in with the campground official – it was pretty hard to separate Mr. Weasley from him as he was fascinated with the Muggle money and demanded to be able to ask this man questions – and then walked to their campsite.

Natalia found it hard to hold in her laughter as she walked by the witches and wizards trying to conceal themselves at Muggles. They were doing a terrible job. She saw several wizards dressed in dresses or skirts, countless tents that looked more like palaces than anything else, and quite a few people blatantly using magic in the open. It was no wonder the Muggles around the campground needed to have their memories wiped not once but multiple times a day.

When they finally got to their campsite, it was quite the task to get the tent set up, as Mr. Weasley had no idea what he was doing and was really more a burden than a help, and Hermione and Natalia were really the only people who had ever set up a tent in their lives. After what seemed like hours, but was really only about forty-five minutes, they finally had the tent set up and decided they would go inside and relax before going to the Cup later that day. Natalia was shocked at the size of the inside of the tent, and it seemed that Hermione and Harry were in a similar state. The Weasleys seemed to be used to a tent this size having this much space on the inside, so Natalia figured it must be something that wizards grow up with. She herself had only been camping once in her life and that was the Muggle way. The tent was barely big enough to hold herself and her two parents comfortably, so she didn't really have much to compare it to.

Almost immediately after sitting down on the couch in the living room, Natalia had fallen asleep, her head lolling onto Fred's shoulder and her mouth hanging wide open. George raised an eyebrow at Fred and smirked when he caught sight of this and Fred rolled his eyes at his twin.

"It's nothing," he assured George.

"That's what you think," George said.

"That's what I know, Georgie," Fred said. He leaned his head against the back of the couch and soon fell asleep himself. Before he and Natalia knew it, they were being woken up to walk to the Cup. If the excited mood hadn't been around that morning – it hadn't, they were far too tired to be excited about anything – everyone was definitely making up for it as they excitedly bounced their way to the stadium.


	3. Chapter Three

**Thanks for the one follower I have on this story! You are amazing and I love you and you're perfect. This chapter's for you! (re-edited June 13, 2013)**

As they made their way to the stadium, they stopped at various stands selling different things for the Cup. Natalia decided to buy a pair of Omnioculars, although they were fairly expensive. When Fred and George frowned at her, she told them, "Maybe you shouldn't have put all your money into gambling. That's a really easy way to lose all your money you've been saving, you know..." She trailed off before adding, "I'll share them with you, don't worry." Their eyes lit up.

As they walked down the trail to the Cup, Natalia found she couldn't keep a smile off her face. The atmosphere around them was excited, she could hear thousands of people chatting, laughing, and maybe even some singing. When they finally came up to the stadium, Natalia felt her jaw drop. She was amazed. There it stood, at least a few hundred feet tall, shimmering gold in the moonlight. It was amazing, to say the least, and unlike anything she had ever seen in her life. They showed the Ministry witch waiting at the entrance their tickets and she told them, "Prime seats... in the box! Straight upstairs, as high as you can go!"

They climbed and climbed, and Natalia's legs were grateful when they finally reached the tiny box. It was at the highest point on the stadium and situated right between the two goal posts, the perfect spot for Natalie's first real Quidditch match.

"Should make for an interesting game," Natalia said, grinning as she sat down in one of the chairs in the front row. Fred sat to her left with George seated next to him, and Ginny sat down on her right. Everyone looked around the stadium excitedly. Natalia decided this was definitely one of the most amazing things she'd seen in her life, especially being Muggle-raised until the age of eleven. She'd have to write some letters to her father telling him about this. Whether he would care or not she didn't know, but she still wrote him letters while she was away and this was definitely something to write about. She pulled her Muggle camera out of her bag and started looking around for a good photo op.

"Why would you use a Muggle camera if you could use a magic one?" Fred asked, examining the camera in her hand.

"I don't know, I suppose it's because it's a little piece of home with all the magic around me, you know? It comforts me. I know that's weird," she said, turning on the camera and aiming it at Fred. She snapped a picture of him. "That'll be a good one."

"So the pictures don't move or anything when you get them developed?" Fred questioned.

"Nope, they're as still as… well, none of your paintings are still either, but they don't move at all," Natalia began to explain, and then corrected herself. "I'll tell you one thing, the moving pictures are something I think I'll never get used to in the magic world."

Over the next half hour, the box they were sitting in slowly started to fill up. Natalia supposed most of them must be Ministry workers because Mr. Weasley and Percy kept getting up to shake hands with people as they entered, Percy so much so that it looked as though he were trying to sit on something sharp that kept poking him in the butt. Natalia saw Malfoy and his parents enter, some of the last people in the box to do so, and tried to ignore them. It was a hard thing to do as Harry, Ron and Hermione were all staring at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"Ignore him, it's not worth getting into here. Enjoy the Cup," she said to the twins. She didn't know if she was trying to tell them, herself, or both. Before anything happened, however, they could hear Ludo saying "Sonorus!" and the next time he spoke, his voice echoed throughout the entire stadium. She was thankful that Ludo had interrupted any conflict that could have occurred.

"Welcome everyone to the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" As he said this, the advertisement board wiped clean of everything, and in its place it said **BULGARIA: 0, IRELAND: 0.**

Both of the teams introduced their mascots, Bulgaria's giving her a laugh as all the boys' expressions glazed over and it seemed as though Harry was going to jump over the side of the box as the veela glided out onto the field and began dancing. Thankfully when the music cut off and the veela ceased their dancing, the boys snapped back into reality. After both the mascots were introduced, the players from each team were announced as they flew into the stadium and the game began.

Natalia had never seen such a good game of Quidditch. She found it hard to keep up. The quaffle was moving so quickly from player to player that she didn't know who had it. Ludo, who was commentating the game, seemed to be having similar problems. As soon as he'd announced that one player had the quaffle, another would already be in possession of it.

"He's got it, Krum has it! It's over," Natalia heard Harry shout. She looked onto the field with her Omnioculars to see Krum standing on the field with a bloody nose, his hand held high, and in his hand the shining golden snitch. The scoreboard finally lit up with **BULGARIA: 160, IRELAND: 170.**

"No, the idiot! Why would he catch the snitch if he knew they were that far behind?" Ron groaned.

"Probably wanted to end the game on his own terms before they were much farther behind," Harry explained.

"Do NOT tell your mother I was letting you gamble," Mr. Weasley urged the twins as they made their way back to the campsite.

"Don't worry Dad, we've got big plans for this money," Fred explained.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want Mum confiscating it." George said.

When they finally reached their campsite, no one felt like sleeping at all. Natalia supposed she probably couldn't fall asleep with all the noise around the campsite, anyway. Instead, they all decided to sit in the living room and discuss anything and everything about the match over some hot chocolate that Mr. Weasley made them in the kitchen. It was only when Ginny fell asleep, and in the process split hot chocolate everywhere, that Mr. Weasley insisted that the group go to sleep.

Natalia still felt as though she couldn't sleep, and she went into the bathroom to change before climbing into her bunk. After what she thought was about half an hour, the sounds of deep breathing and someone snoring came from almost everyone in the tent… except for the bunk above her own. She kicked it slightly with her foot. "Fred, are you awake?" she whispered to him.

"Yeah," he mumbled back.

"Sit up, I'm coming up there," Natalia said. She got out of her bunk, climbed up the ladder and sat on Fred's bed next to him. "Sorry, can't sleep," she explained.

"I can't either, I'm way too excited from the match. I'm sure if Ginny hadn't fallen asleep, Dad would have let us stay up longer," Fred said.

Natalia shrugged, "It's fine. It seems like no one else had a problem with getting to sleep. I think I'm running on adrenaline, though. I'm absolutely exhausted."

"At least you took a nap earlier, right?" Fred said, smiling.

"I think if I hadn't, I would have fallen asleep during the match," Natalia said, and they both stifled laughs. At that moment, there was a change in the noises that were happening outside. Before, they could still hear the faint celebrating and singing of the Irish, but an explosive noised had sounded and now there were noises of terror coming from outside. No singing. No cheering. Just screams and the sounds of people running.

It was then that Mr. Weasley jumped out of his bunk and started throwing on his clothes. "Everyone get up! There's something going on, and it's urgent! Come on!" He was yelling. Fred and Natalia climbed out of his bunk and Mr. Weasley didn't have time to give them a look or question them, as he was waking up the rest of the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione.

"No time to get dressed! Just grab a jacket and get outside, quick!" He said when Natalia went to grab her jeans. Harry and a few of the others also had their clothes in their hands. Natalia threw her jeans down on her bunk and grabbed the light jacket she had brought with her.

When they walked outside the tent, the sounds were enough to make Natalia not want to see what was happening and she turned her back from what was going on, while she watched Ron, Harry and Hermione stare at the scene behind her intently. She threw on her jacket as Mr. Weasley came outside.

"You lot, get into the woods and stick together!"Mr. Weasley yelled as he headed toward whatever people were running from.

"Come on," Fred said, grabbing Natalia's hand as the group made their way towards the woods. "George, grab Ginny!"

George grabbed onto Ginny's hand as they continued to the woods, taking their pace a bit faster than before. When they reached the safety of the woods, Natalia turned around to see that they had lost Ron, Harry and Hermione. "What if something happens to them?" she asked, her eyes wide with fear.

"They'll be okay as long as nobody gets separated by themselves," Fred reassured them.

"That's not going to help me worrying about them... I mean, we don't even know what's going on. What if they get kidnapped or something?" Natalia said.

"They'll be fine. We can't worry about them... that sounded bad but you know what I mean. We have to worry about ourselves," George said.

"So what do we do now?" Ginny said, leaning against a tree.

"We wait until it seems like things have settled down and then we go back to the tent, I'm sure the others will have the same idea," George said.

Fred eyes widened as he looked towards the sky, "Guys, look!" Natalia looked up to where he was pointing and saw what looked like a cloud in the shape of a skull, with a snake coming out of its mouth. She didn't know what is was. In response to her confused look, he told her, "It's the Dark Mark. You-know-who's followers' sign."

"I wonder who would conjure that," Ginny said, fear lacing her voice.

"Maybe someone's just making a prank," Natalia suggested hopefully. "Just to scare everyone. Maybe someone's really angry that Bulgaria won the Cup."

"I don't think someone would do that as a joke," George said, frowning as he started at the sky.

It seemed like hours they were waiting until it appeared as though it was quiet and calmed down enough to go back to the tent. While walking, they noticed Ministry workers running around left and right trying to figure out what had just happened. Things all around the campsites were in a mess, and there was even some stuff that had been lit on fire.

"Left things in a huge mess," George noted.

"It's absolutely terrible! What did any of that accomplish?" Ginny wondered angrily.

"Well, they've got everyone scared… and if You-Know-Who's followers really are back, then this is the first time they've announced themselves," Natalia said.

They made it back to the tent and it seemed like their campsite and most of the ones around them were left untouched by the madness that had occurred. "Thank Merlin these tents didn't get ruined, the guy Dad borrowed them from wouldn't have been too thrilled, would he?" Fred said, and they all laughed a little; it was a tense laugh. When they walked into the tent, they saw Charlie, Bill and Percy all sitting around in the living room, speaking in hushed voices.

"Oh, there you lot are! Where are Harry, Ron and Hermione?" Charlie asked, concerned. Natalia felt they should have been a little more concerned for themselves rather than any of the rest. They were all bleeding in some way. Bill was holding a sheet to his arm, which was bleeding pretty badly. Charlie's shirt was ripped and it appeared as though he had a scratch across his chest. Finally, Percy was trying to get his bloody nose to stop bleeding.

"We got split up from them when we first left the tent, we don't know where they went." Hearing this come out of Ginny's mouth made the wave of concern for her friends wash over her almost as strongly as when she had first realized they'd been separated. She hoped nothing had happened to them.

Charlie, Bill and Percy all sighed. "Well, I guess the best thing to do for the time being would be to sit and wait for them to come back. I'm sure Dad is out looking for them now," Bill said. He didn't sound as though he had convinced himself, but they all settled down on the couch and waited around nervously until they heard someone come through the opening of the tent nonetheless.

"Oh thank Merlin you lot are okay," Mr. Weasley said, sighing with relief when he saw the twins, Ginny and Natalia sitting on the couch with the three older Weasley brothers.

"Dad, what's going on? These guys came back alright, but the others got-" Charlie started before his father could get another word out.

"They're right here, I found them in the woods. Everyone's alright, it seems. A little shaken up, but alright," Mr. Weasley said. "I know everyone isn't in the best mood to go to sleep, but we really must. If Molly hears what's happened, she'll be worried sick until we come home. We'll all try to get a few more hours of sleep and get an early Portkey out in the morning, okay?" Nobody protested to this plan, although Natalia had already been finding it hard to fall asleep after the excitement of the Cup. Now, on top of that, the sound of people screaming kept ringing in her ears. She kept imaging scenarios in her head, all of which ended in something bad happening to someone that was in the tent with her. Her body let her fall into a restless sleep and when she awoke a few hours later, she felt as though she had never even closed her eyes.


	4. Chapter Four

Once the entire group was awake and ready to go - Mr. Weasley had put away the tents using magic so they could leave as early as possible - they were off to try and get a Portkey out of there and back to the Burrow as soon as possible. They were able to take an old tire back to the hill they had left from before the sun had even peaked over the horizon.

When they came up the path to the Burrow in the dim morning light, they heard Mrs. Weasley cry out in what could only have been relief. She could only imagine how afraid she had been after reading about what had happened this morning. "Oh thank goodness you're all alright, I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to you," she said. She sounded like she was on the verge of tears. She wrapped her arms around Mr. Weasley first and then gave a hug to each one of the Weasley children, Harry, Hermione, and Natalia. She kept mumbling "oh thank goodness" as she did this.

They all crowded around the table as Mr. Weasley read the Daily Prophet article about the night's events out loud to them. He scoffed as he read that there had been rumors of bodies being removed from the woods. "There certainly will be rumors after everyone's read this rubbish that woman Rita Skeeter has published," Mr. Weasley said angrily. He paused for a moment, lost in thought, before jumping up and saying, "Oh Molly dear, I've really got to go into the office! Everyone is up in arms over this, there's probably a lot going on!"

"But you're on holiday Arthur, surely you don't need to go in," Mrs. Weasley said, a bit of a pleading look in her eyes.

"I really have to, they're going to need all the help they can get after this article being published," he said, walking up the stairs and mumbling something about dead bodies and rubbish.

Natalia absent-mindedly stared at the table as she heard Harry ask if any letters had come for him lately, and then he shuffled up the stairs with Ron and Hermione soon after.

"You want to go and play a game of Quidditch?" Natalia asked before stifling a yawn. She was exhausted but didn't think she would be able to sleep any until later that day.

"Sounds brilliant," Fred and George said together.

Mrs. Weasley had gone to Diagon Alley and done some school shopping for everyone and it was a good thing, too. If she hadn't, the group would have had to go today and as they were in no state to do this, everyone was thankful. Even if the chaos that had occurred at the Cup last night hadn't happened, Natalia didn't think she would be very happy about going to Diagon Alley after the Cup.

"Oh Ronald, I almost forgot... your packing list said you would need dress robes so I bought you some," she handed Ron a box, which he preceded to open. What he pulled out of it looked like a dress someone from the seventeenth century would wear, and it seemed that Ron shared this opinion because he groaned.

"Muuuum."

"I'm sorry they're a little old, dearie. Dress robes are fairly expensive and I had to buy yours secondhand. Fred and George already had theirs and well... we just didn't have the money to buy you new ones," Mrs. Weasley apologized.

"I also bought Harry some," she said as she handed him a box as well. When he took out the dress robes from his box, they looked more like just a plain old suit. Harry looked quite grateful for this.

She also handed Natalia a box. "I got you some dress robes as well. I thought that a green color would really bring out your eyes and your darker skin."

"Thanks Mrs. Weasley," she smiled, taking the box from her. When she opened the box, her breathing stopped for a moment. The dress robes that Mrs. Weasley had picked out for Natalia were a deep emerald green and, as Mrs. Weasley had said, would surely bring out her olive skin tone as well as her green eyes. "I love them, thank you so much!"

Natalia went upstairs to pack the new dress robes Mrs. Weasley had picked out for her and when she came back downstairs, it seemed that the twins had decided they were going to go on a broom ride. Natalia figured this was a perfect way to end her summer as the three walked to the shed in the backyard and pulled out their brooms.

"Mum wants us back before ten, she doesn't want us out too late the day before we go to school," Fred said as they began their flight. Natalia thought that she probably would want to go to sleep earlier than that, anyway.

"Someone explain to me how I'm afraid of heights, yet I don't mind flying," Natalia said once they had gotten to a reasonable height. If she was at any height anywhere besides on a broomstick, she felt her chest tighten up in fear, but in that moment, she felt at ease.

Fred shrugged, "You're meant to be on a broom. You're one hell of a chaser, it'd kind of be a middle finger if you were afraid of being on a broom."

"Thanks," Natalia said, her face lighting up at the compliment. She pulled out her camera out of her pocket, first taking a picture of the setting sun and then aiming it at Fred and George. She then turned the camera around and took a picture of herself with the twins and the sunset in the background.

"Oh not this thing again," Fred joked, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yes, this thing again," Natalia said, snapping a picture of the two of them again. "I need something for when we're separated for the entire summer after this year."

"Already thinking of next summer and the school year hasn't even begun?" George teased. "I knew there was a reason the two of us decided to befriend you during first year."

Natalia rolled her eyes, and sighed in content at the perfection of that moment. She was with her two best friends watching the sunset, and she had an amazing view of it because they were so high up. She wrapped an arm around the shoulders of each twin.

"I'm so glad you guys are my best friends," Natalia said, leaning her head on Fred's shoulder. "How did I survive a whole summer without you?"

"You didn't, you on the brink of death when we saved you from the harsh, scary Muggle world," George said.

"Yeah, if we had been any later, it would have been too late to save you," Fred added, and the trio laughed.

The next day, Natalia and the twins spent the majority of their train ride to Hogwarts pondering on what exactly the big surprise that everyone was talking about could be. Well, the twins spent almost the entire time doing so. Natalia wondered with them for a little while, fell asleep, and wondered some more when she woke up. They couldn't come up with anything that would be logical, but they all figured it was some sort of contest. That was the farthest they had gotten. They were more than excited when the train finally reached the station and they got off of it and into the carriages that would carry them up to the castle.

"Finally, we'll find out what this big surprise that everyone is talking about is going to be," Natalia said as the three climbed into a carriage, happy to escape the rain that was beginning to steadily fall. As the carriage rolled on up the hill to the castle, Natalia thought out loud, "What if they're just tricking us and there actually isn't any surprise?"

"No, remember at the Cup, Ludo Bagman wanted to tell all of us what was going on?" George countered.

"Oh yeah… what could Ludo Bagman and all of your family know that we all don't?" Natalia asked. Natalia felt that her good mood couldn't be ruined, even as the rain poured and the thunder rumbled while they walked into the castle. She was finally home, in the place that she belonged. Even when Peeves had dropped a huge water balloon on her, her spirits were not dampened, no pun intended. She instead ran at the twins and gave them a hug, getting both of them even more wet than they had been before.

When Professor McGonagall came out of the Great Hall, they decided it was probably best they go in and sit down, Natalia trying to wring out her hair on the way to their seats. They decided upon seats across from Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny and waited for the ceremony to begin.

"Where's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" Hermione asked suddenly, looking up towards the staff table. Natalia noticed there were more empty seats than there normally were. Hagrid's was of course empty because he was bringing up the first years in the boats on the lake. There was no doubt that when they reached the castle, they would all be soaking wet.

"Maybe they couldn't get anyone," Natalia said, her eyes still searching the staff table.

Natalia didn't think she had ever been more excited to see a group of eleven-year-olds in her life as Hagrid led the timid-looking group into the Great Hall. Professor McGonagall sat the Sorting Hat down onto a small stool at the front of Hall. She slowly began losing interest as McGonagall explain the sorting process and began calling out names. She cheered whenever she heard the hat call out "Gryffindor!" but that was about as far as her attention span went. However, when Dumbledore rose to his feet at the end of the sorting after Kevin Whitby had been sorted into Hufflepuff, she didn't know if she'd ever been more attentive in her life. However he only announced that it was time to eat, and the food appeared on the four long tables as well as the staff table as Dumbledore sat down.

"I was hoping he would announce what this surprise is going to be," Natalia said in disappointment.

"He probably will after the feast," Fred said, filling his plate with the food that was closest to him and stuffing some of it in his mouth. "Don' worry 'bout it," he said, his mouth full of food.

Natalia rolled her eyes. "Can't you at least try to be a gentleman and not talk with your mouth full?"

Fred swallowed what was in his mouth. "Sorry, m'lady. Is this better?"

The pair laughed, Natalia rolled her eyes again, and then said, "Of course it's better, I don't have to see your half-chewed food this way."

The group kept mostly quiet after that as they filled and re-filled their plates with the endless food on the table. This was the best meal Natalia remembered having in a while. When she was with her father, they usually just ate fast food or spaghetti. It was nothing as extravagant as the food that was lying in front of her now and Hogwarts food only came second to Mrs. Weasley's cooking. When it seemed as though no one could eat another bite, Dumbledore rose up to speak again.

"Now that we are all fed and happy, I would like to make a few announcements," Dumbledore said. "Mr. Filch has asked me to tell you that there have been a few items added to the list of forbidden objects. If you would like to know the complete list, you may see it in Mr. Filch's office." The corners of his mouth twitched up into a smile as he said the next bit, "Also, I would like to remind you all that the forest on grounds is out-of-bounds to all students as is Hogsmeade village to anyone below third year." He took a rather large pause before continuing. "It is also with great pain that I inform you that the Inter-House Quidditch Cup will not be taking place this year." Fred, George, Natalia and Harry all yelled out 'What?!' in surprise, and they waited for justification as to why this would be. Natalia heard Oliver Wood, the Gryffindor keeper and captain of the team, yell out in disgust from the other end of the table. Dumbledore held up his hands asking for silence and when everyone had stopped mumbling, he continued. "This is because there will be another event that will begin in October, continued through the entire school year, taking up much of everyone's time and energy."

Natalia felt her excitement grow as she knew this was the big announcement that everyone had been talking about, especially the last few days. A loud roar of thunder drowned out Dumbledore's next few words as a strange-looking man came through the doors of the Great Hall. Natalia frowned. How dare this man interrupt what Dumbledore was about to say? Who was he, anyway? Why was he at Hogwarts? Natalia didn't care, she just wanted to find out about the big surprise.

"Ah yes, let me introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody," Dumbledore said, a genuine smile on his face. The Great Hall was completely silent for a few seconds, probably in fear of this strange man, and only when Hagrid and Dumbledore began clapping did everyone else join in. The applause was very quiet and half-hearted. After Professor Moody had sat down at the staff table – it seemed as though it took him ages to get up to there – Dumbledore picked up right where he left off and began explaining the event that was to take place.

"As I was saying, we have the honor of hosting an exciting event, one that has not taken place for over a century… the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year!" Dumbledore yelled, a huge grin on his face. "Some of you may know what this tournament involves, so I hope you will forgive me as I give a short explanation for those who don't"

He began explaining the history of the Triwizard Tournament and all the details of the one that was to come, and Natalia began whispering to the twins, "So are you two going to enter?"

"Of course," they whispered in unison. The three grinned at one another.

"We are, however, changing a few of the prior rules. In attempts to make the Tournament a bit safer, no wizard under the age of seventeen will be allowed to participate in the Tournament," Dumbledore said.

Natalia heard protests coming from all over the Great Hall, but loudest ones were coming from either side of her: Fred and George.

"They can't do that!" George yelled. "That's not fair!"

"It's not going to stop me from entering," Fred stated matter-of-factly.

"I doubt that you'll be able to enter, Fred," Natalia mumbled, but it went unheard because of Dumbledore's next words.

"That's enough!" Dumbledore yelled into the Great Hall. "There are no exceptions to this rul and it will not be changed. The headmasters from both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons will be arriving with an assortment of their students in a few weeks and once they are settled in, the choosing of the champions will be done on Halloween. Thank you!"

Everyone began filing out of the Great Hall, and Natalia linked arms with the twins and said cheerfully, "I think I'm going to enter." Her cheerfulness was not shared.


	5. Chapter Five

**Sorry for not updating for so long! School, work and cheerleading have made me beyond busy that it's hard to update! I will NOT be abandoning this story just so everyone knows! I just may update very infrequently, unfortunately. I still love all of you. Thanks so much for following and reviewing! (re-edited June 13, 2013)**

"You can't enter! What if anything happens to you?!" Fred exclaimed as they walked to the Gryffindor common room.

"What makes it okay for you two to want to enter and not for me to be able to? I'll be seventeen in October. I'll be of age and I can bloody do whatever I please then, can't I? You two are younger than me, you can't control what I can and can't do," Natalia retorted, offended.

"It's not that we think you can't do it," George defended.

"It's just that we don't want anything bad happening to you," Fred continued.

"Yeah, what would we do without our brilliant little Talia?" George said, and they both grinned.

Natalia rolled her eyes, not smiling at either one of them. Her eyebrows were scrunched together in anger. "I can't tell if you're joking or not," she mumbled angrily.

"Partially," George admitted.

"We really don't want anything to happen to you, though," Fred said in a serious tone.

"You're certainly entitled to enter, of course," George said. "Just remember what Dumbledore said."

"Yeah, if your name gets pulled out, you're required to compete. You can't have any second thoughts," Fred said. "We're just looking out for you, okay? Don't be mad. We care about you."

"I very well am mad," Natalia said, frowning. "You two think you can just boss me around and tell me what to do? Neither of you are my father, okay?" Her voice was slowly beginning to rise as they went through the portrait hole and into the Gryffindor common room. Natalia felt her eyes fill up with angry tears. "Not that my father would care if I was in the tournament or not. I could die and he wouldn't give a damn," she mumbled under her breath.

"We didn't mean it like that, Talia," Fred said.

"We just don't want to see you get hurt," George said.

They both wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she felt shame wash over her. How could she get angry at her best friends, especially when all they were trying to do was keep her safe? They did truly care about her and didn't want to see anything happen to her. She would be acting the same exact way if she was in their shoes. "Sorry," she said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I didn't mean to... I'm just... sorry. You know how I get when I'm angry."

"It's fine," they said in unison. She gave them a watery smile and laughed.

"Hey, do you two fancy going out on a broom ride?" Natalia said all of a sudden, her face lighting up and any signs of sadness or anger long gone. She was dying to be able to fly as high as she wanted, something she couldn't do at the Weasleys' home and something she _definitely_ couldn't do at her own house.

"I actually have some summer work that I need to finish up," George said. "Leaving it until the very last minute, I suppose."

"I thought we both finished-" Fred began to say, but George cut him off before he could complete his sentence.

"I still have some transfiguration stuff to finish up, you two go have some fun. Just be back before curfew," he teased, winking at them.

"Oh, you know we won't," Natalia said, running up the stairs excitedly to grab her broom. There was only fifteen minutes left until curfew. As long as the pair was outside of the castle by then, they would be fine. If they were wandering in the direction of the common room anytime after curfew, no teacher except for Snape would stop them. When she came to the bottom of the stairs, Fred was already waiting with his broom in hand.

They took their time walking through the castle and out onto the grounds. Neither really talked, but they fell into a silence that was not in the least bit awkward. When they finally got out onto the grounds and kicked off into the air, Fred finally spoke, "So Talia, I practically know everything about you, right?" Natalia nodded, knowing what was going to come next. "How come you never really mention your dad except in really bitter side comments?"

Natalia sighed. "It's complicated, I guess. I haven't told anyone in the magical world. I kind of keep it to myself."

"Well, you know I'm your best friend and you can trust me, who am I going to tell?" Fred said.

Natalia shrugged. "You pinky promise you won't say anything?"

"I... uh, what?" Fred asked, his eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"It's a Muggle thing." She said, realizing that Fred had no idea what she was talking about. She continued to explain, "When you promise something, you pinky promise... and then you kiss your thumb!" She grabbed Fred's hand in her own and linked their pinkies together. "And then I ask you if you pinky promise and you say 'and kiss my thumb,' then we both kiss our thumbs."

She got close enough to Fred that she could feel his body heat radiating from him, and then pulled her hand up to her mouth and Fred followed, their pinkies still linked. "Pinky promise?" Natalia said in a low voice.

"And kiss my thumb," Fred said, and they both kissed their thumbs. Their hands dropped away from their mouths, their pinkies still linked together.

"Not even George," Natalia said, and Fred nodded. "So... my dad isn't actually my biological dad. When I found out I was a witch, I also found out that a witch and a wizard gave me to a Muggle adoption agency during the war and my adopted dad found me at the adoption agency and decided to adopt me. I had an adopted mother as well, but she left my dad when she found out I was a witch."

"How could she do that?!" Fred exclaimed.

"I don't know, I'm still trying to figure it all out for myself. I guess the whole magic thing really freaked her out. She didn't want to be around something that wasn't normal. She kind of has a lower scale version of the mindset of the Dursleys, I guess... Anyway, ever since then, he's been really bitter to me, doesn't really pay much attention to me, and he blames me for my mother leaving." She felt herself starting to get emotional as the memories of her mother packing up her bags and leaving came flooding back to her. "She just left. She didn't write. She didn't call. She didn't visit. I haven't heard from her in five years," Natalia continued. "Neither has my dad and he blames me. So, my father and I aren't on the best terms. He's kind of washed his hands of me, but I mean... I still live with him but he doesn't really care if I'm there or not. He still wants my permission to do things but doesn't do anything for me."

"I'm sure he cares about you deep down inside, Talia," Fred assured her. "There's no way someone could just not care about you. You're too perfect of a person for someone to not care, especially your own father. He raised you, he's got to care about you at least a little."With his free hand, he wiped the tears that she hadn't even realized had fallen. "Please don't cry," he said, pouting at her.

"I guess I just kept all of these emotions built up inside of me and I'm letting them all loose now," she said, the tears still falling. "I've never talked about this with anyone."

"It's okay," Fred said, smiling at her. "Sometimes it's good to have a good cry. It's not good to keep anything built up inside of you for too long. It's always good to have someone you can tell anything to. Now stop crying because there isn't any reason to."

They both laughed as they lowered themselves towards the ground, and when they were on solid ground and walking back towards the castle, they linked their pinkies together again.

"Thank you so much for listening, Fred," Natalia said, her eyes still a little red. "I really appreciate it."

"Hey, what are best friends for?" Fred said. "I'll always be here to listen. Anytime of day. Any time of year. Anywhere. About anything."

"Pinky promise?" Natalia asked, holding up their linked pinkies.

"And kiss my thumb," Fred said, grinning at her. "Do you want to go down to the kitchens and have a cup of hot chocolate before we head back?"

"Sure," Natalia said, and they walked the familiar path to the kitchens, falling into a companionable silence. When they reached the portrait of the fruit, Fred tickled the pear and it opened up into the kitchen. It seemed as though the house elves were beginning to settle down, cleaning up the messes from the feast a few hours earlier, but when they saw Fred and Natalia, they all stopped what they were doing and began asking them if they wanted anything.

"Just a couple of mugs of hot cocoa," Natalia said, and once one of the house elves had handed these to them – it was rather quickly, too – they headed back to the Gryffindor common room, sipping their hot chocolate with their pinkies still intertwined.

"You've got it bad, Freddie. It's much worse than I thought," George said as soon as Fred walked through the door to their dorm room, a goofy grin on his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Fred said.

"Oh, you bloody know what I'm talking about," George said, laughing and rolling his eyes. "What's got you so happy all of a sudden? All you did was go flying with Talia."

Fred shook his head. "We just talked. I feel like I really know her now."

"What'd you talk about?" George asked.

Fred shook his head. "Sorry Georgie, that I can't tell you. She confided in me and I pinky promised her that I'd keep it a secret."

"You... um, what?" George asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I pinky promised. It's a Muggle thing, she had to explain it to me. Apparently when Muggles promise something to each other, they link their pinkies together and kiss their thumb," Fred said. He shrugged.

"Sounds stupid," George said, and Fred rolled his eyes. "So when are you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Fred asked.

"Stop beating around the bush, Freddie. When are you going to tell her you like her?" George asked.

"I don't like her," Fred stated matter-of-factly. "She's my best friend… my sister!"

"Oh, don't give me that rubbish. You're in denial, and we both know it," George said, grinning.

"I'm not in denial, Georgie. I'm serious. She's my best friend, I don't want to date her," Fred said.

"When you finally realize you're head over heels for her, let me know and I can be of more assistance," George said, closing the curtains on his bed. "Until then, why don't you go get some sleep, lover boy?" Fred rolled his eyes, changed into his pajamas and closed the curtains on his own bed, but for some reason, he couldn't help but smile as he drifted off to sleep.


	6. Chapter Six

**Thank you to anyone who is sticking with this story! It means a lot. I'm so sorry for the severe lack of updates. School is making it very, very hard to keep writing but I am trying my best! (re-edited June 13, 2013)**

The next morning at breakfast, the Great Hall was buzzing with talk of the Triwizard Tournament as the Heads of Houses were handing out class schedules. It seemed that even those who couldn't enter were discussing who from their house would win if they were to be chosen. There wasn't any other topic of discussion that morning. "I think Talia has a good chance at winning if she gets chosen," Ginny said as Professor McGonagall handed out their schedules.

"A good chance? There's no bloody way she couldn't win!" Ron agreed.

"Thanks guys, but I haven't even been chosen yet. Don't jinx me!" Natalia said as she began looking over her schedule. She groaned. "Double Potions first? Are you kidding me?"

"You're joking," George said before he and Fred both groaned.

"No joke. Check it out," Natalia said, pointing to the block that showed they indeed had double potions that morning. "I don't know if I'll be able to stay awake through that entire thing."

"I don't know if I'll live through that entire thing," George said, groaning.

"Oh, you two, don't be so overdramatic," Fred said, rolling his eyes. "It'll be fine."

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" George said, cocking an eyebrow at Fred. Natalia had to agree with George. She never would have imagined that he would describe double potions first thing in the morning as "fine."

"Fred Weasley, nice to meet you," Fred said sarcastically, putting his hand out for George to shake. "Have we met before?"

"Smartass," George mumbled, shaking his head and smacking Fred's hand away.

"Well, on the upside, we only have that and Transfiguration today," Natalia said, pointing again to the schedule. They had almost the entire day free to themselves because they had Transfiguration directly after double potions, meaning their classes would be over by noon.

"Oh good, plenty of time to go for a nice mid-afternoon flight," Fred said, rubbing his hands together.

"I better be invited," George said.

"Nope," Fred said.

"Swell, meet you two around twelve thirty out near the Quidditch pitch," George said. The three of them stood up and began making their way down to the Potions classroom.

"It's the first day of classes, try not to get on his nerves too much," Natalia said, and they all laughed.

"You know we will," the twins said simultaneously.

"Oh, I know you will, but I figure I would try to prevent it. You know he hates all of us already," Natalia said.

"Of course we know that, Talia. It's a no brainer," Fred said.

"Everyone knows Snape hates the Gryffindors," George added.

"Well, you know that he's going to be in a terrible mood having double potions with Gryffindors on the first day of school, so don't be stupid. Behave yourselves," Natalia said. There was the mother figure in her coming out and trying to keep the twins under control. As they sat down at one of the tables in the classroom, Natalia said, "Hey, for once you two are actually early for class. That never happens."

"Yeah, we shouldn't make a habit of it," George said.

"We have a reputation to keep up with," Fred said, and they both grinned.

Natalia rolled her eyes. "You two are something else."

They heard the door slam and looked up to see Professor Snape at the front of the classroom, an annoyed look on his face. When Natalia thought about it, however, she couldn't remember a time where Snape didn't have an annoyed look on his face. He wasted no time in jumping into a lecture as though it were the middle of the school year, and Natalia found it rather hard to focus as she tried taking notes on everything he was saying.

Her mind was elsewhere, at the Quidditch pitch later that day, where she was flying around with her two best friends. Thankfully for Natalia, Double Potions seemed to go by rather quickly - as quickly as any class with Snape could go by - and she soon found herself walking down to the Quidditch pitch, her broom in hand. It wasn't long before she heard the voices of two redheaded twins behind her, and she smiled as she stopped and waited for them to catch up.

"Why can't it just be Halloween time already? I just want to enter and find out if I'm chosen," Natalia whined once they had caught up with her.

"Why, so you can mentally prepare yourself?" Fred said, laughing.

"Exactly! I don't know what I'm going to have to be facing in this tournament," Natalia said. "I could be dueling a dragon or something!"

"Calm down, Talia. You don't even know if you're in the tournament or not yet. You shouldn't stress about it until after your name is chosen... and even then, you shouldn't stress because we all know you're going to be bloody brilliant," George assured her.

Natalia nodded, mounting her broom and kicking off into the air. "You know, it really sucks that the pitch is closed this year... I don't understand why we can't go in there and go flying even if we don't have Quidditch."

"Maybe there's something for the tournament in there," George suggested.

"Maybe," Natalia said, frowning and flying higher into the air to see if she could get a glimpse of inside the pitch. "It just looks like the grass is a little bit longer than normal... that's it."

Fred and George both shrugged. "I dunno," Fred said.

"Maybe that's part of their plan," George said. The three let the idea of why the pitch was closed leave their minds, along with any other thoughts of the tournament, and decided to play a bit of Quidditch - whatever they could manage to do with three people, that is.

This was how she spent most of her afternoons during September and the first couple weeks of October. In the morning, she would go to her classes. If she had a free period, she would either go play Quidditch or catch up on some of the homework she needed to do. She would attend whatever afternoon classes she had, and then do whatever she hadn't done in the afternoon after dinner. This routine schedule that she fell into made the weeks fly by and before she knew it, it was October 22nd - Natalia's seventeenth birthday. Thankfully, there was no classes that day or the next because it fell on a Saturday, so Fred and George were deciding to throw a small birthday party in their dormitory. They had promised her that they would come up with firewhiskey and butterbeer if Natalia brought herself and anyone else that she wanted to come. She didn't really want to invite anyone else – maybe Ginny, but she was only thirteen and Natalia didn't think she would approve of drinking.

Their mini party was later that night, though, and it was still morning. She figured since it was a Saturday morning, Fred and George probably wouldn't be awake yet to go down to breakfast, especially at eight o'clock. She rolled herself out of bed and decided to go and wake up Fred and George if they weren't already, still in her sweatpants and the oversized sweater that she supposed she had stolen from one of the twins, because she knew it wasn't hers. It was one of the only sweaters that didn't have a G or an F on it, so she couldn't tell which of theirs it was.

Just as she had thought, when she climbed the stairs and went into the Sixth Year Boys' dormitory, Fred and George were both still sound asleep in their bunks. "Freeeed, Geeeorge!" Natalia called out, opening up the curtains completely on both of their beds. "If you two don't get up in three bloody seconds, I'm going to pour cold water over your heads," she threatened.

They both mumbled sleepily and opened their eyes, a confused look on their faces while their half-awake brains processed where the sound was coming from and who was in the dormitory. "Morning birthday girl," Fred mumbled, sitting up in his bunk. "How's it feel to be of age?"

"Oh, just bloody brilliant," Natalia said, smiling. "Not really any different, I guess. Maybe it will set in a little bit more when we leave and I'm allowed to do magic... Alright Georgie, your three seconds is up. Get up or you'll regret it in about half a second." George was always the one out of the pair that was harder to wake up. It was one of the only things that was different between the pair of them.

Natalia noticed that there were a few differences between the twins besides this almost instantly, and if it wasn't instantly, it was after spending her entire first year with the pair. First, Fred had more freckles than George - at least on his face. Natalia had never observed any other part of his body in great detail. Second, they smelt differently. They both smelt like cinnamon mixed with something, George with pine but Fred with the smell after it rains. Third, they had completely different taste in girls. Natalia had had to listen to one too many conversations about what they thought about different girls - both at Hogwarts and not - but it came with the territory of being best friends with two teenage twin boys.

It had taken a few minutes, but she managed to get both of the twins motivated enough to go down to breakfast with her after convincing them that it wasn't so weird to go down in their pajamas and that she was going to do that as well.

"Are you excited for tonight?" Fred asked as they walked down to breakfast, Natalia in between the twins and their arms linked together.

"It's going to be a good time," George said, and they both grinned.

"You two are ridiculous, I hope one of you looks up a spell or something to cure my hangover in the morning," Natalia said. "The hangover that I _know_ I'll have."

"We've been trying to do that," Fred explained, "but it's much easier said than done. Most people say that a Muggle remedy is better than any magic."

"So a greasy breakfast and almost no sleep?" Natalia asked.

"Precisely," the twins answered in unison. The trio sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, further discussing their plans of that evening. They spoke in significantly lower voices as to not be overheard.

"Is anyone else coming?" Fred asked.

"Well, I don't really hang out with anyone except you two, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. I didn't think you'd want to drink with your brother and sister. Plus, Ginny is only thirteen. She has no business drinking and I don't think she would want to anyway. Hermione would never want to either because she likes to obey any and all rules and I don't think Harry would come if Ron wasn't," Natalia explained. "So no, it's just going to be the three of us."

"Wonderful, more for us then," George said, and they all laughed.

Natalia wasn't as hungry as she thought she was when she had first woken up, so she ate a few pieces of bacon and a bagel, then drank some of the pumpkin juice in front of her, before bolting up. "Who wants to go for a nice morning flight?" She asked, a huge smile on her face and her eyes lighting up. She always wanted to go flying if she had free time and today was no different. She would suggest going flying even if it was three in the morning, snowing and in the middle of winter.

"Give us about twenty minutes to finish eating, and then we'll all get changed and head out," George said.

"Perfect, gives me some time to go take a shower," Natalia said, walking out of the Great Hall.

"So, are you going to tell her tonight? 'Hey Natalia, we're both drunk and it's your seventeenth birthday, did you know I'm secretly in love with you? Let's snog!' I think it'd be perfect," George said as soon as Natalia was too far away to hear. He snickered.

Fred smacked his twin on the arm. "For the last time, Georgie, I don't like her! She's my best friend, things would be awkward if we were dating. It'd be like dating my sister."

"For the last time, Freddie," George mocked him, "It's painfully obvious that you indeed do like her, so you need to put on your big boy pants and let her know before someone else does."

"Why, do you think someone else likes her?" Fred immediately blurted out.

"So you _do_ like her!" George said, pointing an accusing finger at Fred. "You wouldn't have said someone else if you didn't like her."

Fred sighed. "Okay, maybe I do... just a little. But don't tell her," he said through gritted teeth. "Under no circumstances is she to find out about this, and if you tell her-"

"I get it, Freddie. My lips are sealed and locked up, key thrown away and everything."

"Even_ alohamora _won't work?" Fred asked jokingly.

"Nope, no way to get this secret out of me."


	7. Chapter Seven

**Sorry updating is taking so long! I'm NOT abandoning my story, school just makes it very hard to update as much as I would like to. Thanksgiving break is coming up and hopefully I'll update once or twice while I'm on break (re-edited on June 13, 2013)**

When night time had finally arrived, it seemed as though it had taken days for merely a few hours to pass by. Natalia was glad when ten o'clock finally rolled around and she and the twins retreated to the Sixth Year Boys' dormitory. She were pleasantly surprised to find that none of the other sixth year boys were there as of yet.

"Oh, don't worry. They've all found something to do for the night by our request. They shouldn't be coming back for at least a few hours," George explained when he saw Natalia looking around the dormitory.

"And now that the three of us are alone in here..." Fred said, reaching underneath his bed and pulling out two big bottles of firewhiskey and a twelve pack of butterbeer.

"You really think we're going to need two bottles of firewhiskey?" Natalia asked. "I weigh a hundred and twenty pounds, it is not going to take that much to get me drunk. Give me eight shots and I'm borderline blackout."

"Well, we can save some for when you get chosen to compete in the Tournament," Fred said.

"Don't say that like it's a definite, there are plenty of other people that are going to enter, none of us know if I'm going to be chosen or not," Natalia said as Fred opened up the bottle of firewhiskey. Immediately, the strong smell of alcohol filled Natalia's nostrils, making them burn.

"Birthday girl gets the first one," he said, handing her the bottle. "We don't have any glasses, so we figured it's fine to just drink right out of the bottle." Natalia took a huge gulp of the drink, and felt the burning sensation moving down her throat and into her stomach almost immediately. This was her first time drinking firewhiskey and she could tell that it was much stronger than the Muggle drinks she was used to having.

"Woah, that's strong," Natalia said, handing the bottle to Fred. He and George both took sips from the bottle. "When I was home over the summer, we drank this Muggle stuff called vodka and I can tell you one thing, firewhiskey is definitely stronger than vodka."

She took the bottle from George's hand and took another gulp out of the bottle. She was beginning to feel the alcohol after just two shots. Her cheeks were growing hot and she was starting to feel lightheaded.

"Well, just means you'll get drunker faster than usual," Fred said, laughing. Natalia giggled, taking the bottle from Fred and taking another sip.

"Hey, you skipped me! It was my turn next," George said, jokingly pouting.

"Yeah, but it's myyyy birthday!" Natalia said, pointing to herself before taking a fourth sip from the bottle before handing it to George.

"It really doesn't take you much to get drunk, does it?" Fred asked, laughing at how much Natalia's words were already slurred.

"I told you it didn't, but I'm telling you right now that I am not drunk!" Natalia said, giggling and slapping Fred on the arm. Twenty minutes later, the first bottle of firewhiskey had already been finished, mostly by Natalia. She was significantly less sober than the twins were, probably drinking twice as much as them.

"You knowww, I just love you two sooo much!" Natalia said, wrapping an arm around each of the twins and giving them each a sloppy kiss on the cheek.

"She's most definitely blackout drunk, Georgie," Fred said, and the three of them laughed.

"No, I'm not drunk, Fred," Natalia whined, pulling herself into his lap. "I'm just so happy that you're my friend." She wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning in and whispering is his ear, "Can I tell you a secret, Freddie?" She giggled. George watched the pair, laughing to himself and taking a sip of a butterbeer.

"What's your secret?" He whispered back, half-mocking her, which she didn't notice.

"I like you," she whispered.

"I like you too, Natalia. You're a good friend," Fred said, smiling at her and wrapping his arms around her.

"Noooo Fred," Natalia said, pouting. "I mean I liiiiike you! Like... like like you." Before Fred had time to respond, Natalia had pressed her lips to his and her hands running through his hair. Maybe if his judgement hadn't been so skewed, or maybe if the way her hands were tangled in his hair didn't feel so bloody good, or maybe if it was any girl besides Natalia - the girl he was in love with - he would have had the self control to pull his lips away from hers.

But he didn't. His lips responded to hers with urgency, and even though the kisses were sloppy with drunkenness, Fred thought that this was the best kiss he had ever had. He was lost in the moment... until he heard a loud noise from behind Natalia, which he realized was George clearing his throat. Both Natalia and Fred looked over at George, who had a raised eyebrow and a smirk on his face.

"Oh shut up, Georgie," Fred mumbled, blushing a little bit. It seemed that Natalia had not been phased by this because she grabbed Fred and tried to kiss him again, but this time Fred's head was a bit clearer, clear enough to try and stop her. "Talia, you're drunk. You're not even going to remember this in the morning."

"You're silly, Fred. Of course I'm going to remember this in the morning. How could I forgot telling you that... and kissing you?" She asked, her fingers tracing invisible patterns on his chest. He felt his heart rate quicken and his breathing became heavier when she did this, and he grabbed her hand to keep her from doing it anymore.

"Maybe you should go to sleep, Talia. It's late and if you don't, you're going to regret it," Fred suggested, trying anything to get her to stop doing anything. She pouted at this suggestion, but he was glad that she took the suggestion. It wasn't really all that late; only a couple hours had passed since they had begun drinking.

"Fine, only if you come and lay down with me, though" she slurred, trying to get up off of his lap. She had almost stood up when she fell flat on her face and began to laugh hysterically.

"She is definitely blackout, Freddie," George said as he and Fred tried to help her up. "Do you want some pajamas to wear, Talia?"

"That would be wonderful," she said, sitting down on Fred's bed and giggling again. Fred dug through his trunk and found a pair of his boxers and a shirt, handing them to Natalia. It took her awhile, but she managed to get them on without any help. She pulled on Fred's arm and insisted that she lay down with him, and once he had, she fell asleep almost instantly.

Once she had fallen asleep, snoring and all, Fred mumbled to George, "You think she'll remember any of this in the morning, Georgie?"

"Probably not Freddie, sorry," George responded, causing Fred to sigh.

The next morning when Natalia woke up, she felt as though she had been hit in the head by a brick. She was in one of the twin's boxers and shirt - she didn't know which one - and she was laying in bed with a shirtless Fred, who was completely passed out with his arms wrapped tightly and protectively around Natalia's waist.

She had an uneasy feeling in her stomach, a feeling she knew all too well the day after a night of drinking. She had dealt with a hangover way too many times the previous summer. She spent some time trying to get Fred's death grip on her waist unlocked before running into the bathroom of their dormitory and throwing up. This is what woke Fred up, and he got up out of his bed and walked over to the door of the bathroom, knocking on it lightly.

"Talia, are you okay in there?" Fred asked, opening the door to find Natalia sitting on the floor in front of the toilet, her face a pale shade of green.

"Not really," Natalia said, laughing a little bit at herself. Fred sat down on the floor of the bathroom next to her. "I'm so bloody hungover, it's not even fair."

She leaned over the toilet bowl again, feeling another intense wave of nausea washing over her body. Before she had a chance to throw up, she felt Fred grabbing her hair out of her face with one hand. The other hand rested on the small of her back. He begun tracing invisible patterns on her back with his hand in an attempt to comfort her. "Thanks Fred," she mumbled.

"So Natalia, how much do you remember from last night?" Fred asked, trying to make it sound like a casual question. He really wanted to know whether or not she remembered kissing him.

She sat up from the toilet bowl, resting her head on the wall and closing her eyes. "I remember finishing that bottle of firewhiskey and drinking about twice as much as you did... and then I woke up in your bed in your clothes... or George's, I'm not sure."

"No, they're mine. We weren't about to let you try to get up to bed by yourself, so we decided it was better for you to just stay here," Fred said, smiling at her. He then realized that she couldn't even see his face because her eyes were still closed.

"You are honestly the best friend I could ask for," Natalia said, keeping her eyes closed but letting a smile spread across her lips. "What the hell would I do without you?"

"You probably wouldn't be alive by now," Fred said. "But you know what you need is a good breakfast."

"How are you so cheery right now?" Natalia asked.

"You can't even see me right now. How do you know I'm cheery?" Fred asked.

"I can hear it in your voice. I've been your best friend for five years, you don't think I can't tell how you're feeling by the sound of your voice?" Natalia responded, opening her eyes and standing up. "Do you understand how far the Great Hall is from here? It's such a far walk. I'd rather just lay around and relax all day."

"No can do, Miss Talia. You need some food in you. Go down to the common room, George and I will meet you there in a few minutes. Oh... and maybe you should put something other than my boxers on," Fred said, laughing at his last comment.

"Yeah, okay. Meet you down there in a few minutes," Natalia said. She moved slowly and lazily to the door of the boys' dormitory and as soon as the door had closed behind her, Fred was shaking George awake.

"Georgie, she doesn't remember anything from last night... at all," Fred said in a low voice. "What do I do? Should I tell her what happened or just pretend it never happened or just tell her how I feel or-"

"Freddie," George said, cutting Fred off. "Take a deep breath. Relax. You're Mister Ladies' Man. It shouldn't be this hard to figure this one out. Apparently you've already got her wrapped around your finger without even doing anything."

"But she doesn't remember anything, Georgie. What if she doesn't actually like me and her drunken self just thought she did?" Fred asked, a concerned look on his face.

"Drunken actions are sober thoughts," George said matter-of-factly, as if nothing more true had come out of his mouth. "… or something like that. Don't worry about it, Freddie. Seriously."

"I'll try not to, Georgie," Fred said as they got up and walked down the common room to meet Natalia for breakfast.


	8. Chapter Eight

**SO sorry it took so long for this chapter to come! I have been super busy and had a lot going on. I also changed the progression of this chapter four or five times until I was happy with it, but I think I finally got it! Enjoy and thanks for reading! (re-edited June 13, 2013)**

It seemed as though the last few days had lasted forever for Fred. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he liked Natalia. He was completely sure of that now ever since she had kissed him. Even though neither of them had been sober, he still remembered it with startling clarity. The way her lips felt against his, her hands running through his hair, his stomach in knots... he definitely liked her. A lot. And no matter how much he liked her, he had to try to act normal around her because she didn't remember any of it. Of course, it killed him inside, but his twin assured him that everything would work out in the end and Fred always trusted George. It was a twin thing; they never lied to each other. Why would this be any different?

A few days had passed since the other two schools had arrived. Although it was a bit strange to have the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons at Hogwarts, especially one famous Viktor Krum, it was easy to get back into the normal rhythm of things after the hype had died down. At the welcoming feast for the other schools, Dumbledore had told the visiting students some things he had already told the students of Hogwarts. He went over some of the rules about the tournament and also announced, new information to everyone, that the Goblet of Fire would be where prospective students would enter their names for a chance to compete in the tournament.

"Are you ready to go put our names in the Goblet?" Natalia asked, snapping Fred out of his thoughts.

"Oh yeah, let's go," Fred said as he, George, and Natalia got up and began walking to the classroom that the Goblet was being stored in. As he walked there, the vial of aging potion in his pocket started to weigh significantly more than it had before. Or maybe he was just becoming more aware of it.

"You know, I still don't think the aging potion is going to work," Natalia thought out loud. "I feel like Dumbledore's prepared to deal with something as simple as an aging potion."

"You never know," Fred said, although he was in agreement with her. He really didn't think that Dumbledore would look over something as simple as an aging potion when drawing the age line around the Goblet.

"Well, it's the only chance we've got to enter, so we might as well give it a shot," George said.

When they reached the room, Natalia pulled a small folded up piece of paper out from her pocket and stepped past the aging line that Dumbledore had drawn. Fred watched as she threw the piece of paper into the Goblet, stared at it for a moment, and then walked back over to the twins. The way the light from the Goblet hit her face gave Fred a strange feeling in his stomach and he couldn't help but smile watching her.

"Well, that's done. No turning back now," Natalia said, and she gave a nervous laugh.

"Good job, Talia," Fred said, giving her an encouraging smile and patting her on the back. It was now his and George's turn to try.

"Ready, Freddie?" George asked, pulling out the vial of aging potion out of his pocket. Fred mirrored his actions and the pair tapped their vials together then drank. When Fred stepped over the aging line, it seemed as though it had worked. Everyone in the room at the time gave a small cheer, and Fred high fived George happily. But shortly after Fred had high fived his brother, while he was sifting through his pocket for the piece of paper with his name on it, he felt his body being thrown away from the Goblet and people in the room were giggling.

"George... you..." Fred said, but began laughing.

"Fred, your face..." George said, laughing equally hard. Fred felt his chin and looked down. He had a grey beard that could rival Dumbledore's. The pair sat on the ground and laughed at one another before Natalia walked over to the two, holding back laughter.

"Don't you think you should go to the hospital wing to get them removed?" She asked, cocking an eyebrow and stifling a laugh. "As much as you two look like ladies' men with those beards..."

"Oh, but didn't you..." Fred began.

"We are ladies' men," George finished.

As the trio walked to the hospital wing, all the while making jokes about Fred and George's beard, Natalia mentioned, "You're probably going to have to stay overnight, you know."

"That's no fun," Fred said, pouting.

"I just want the beard to go away, I don't want to spend the night in the hospital wing," George said, an identical pout on his face.

As Natalia had said, it turned out that Fred and George were indeed going to need to spend the night in the hospital wing while their grey hair disappeared. Natalia had told them that she would try to borrow Harry's invisibility cloak so she could spend the night in the hospital wing with the twins. It wasn't until late that night when she returned.

"You know, you may be invisible, but people can still hear you," Fred said, laughing at the sound of what he assumed was Natalia tripping over her own feet as usual.

"Shut up," he heard her mumble from across the room. Natalia took off the invisibility cloak, a grin on her face. "The beards look better... and I can see some of your ginger-ness coming back."

"Ginger-ness?" George said, raising an eyebrow at her. She nodded in response and pulled a chair between the two beds.

"You know, I don't know what PomPom gave us, but it's making me exhausted," Fred said, stifling a yawn.

"You're not telling me that you two are going to fall asleep on me as soon as I get here. Do you know how much trouble I had to go through to get Harry to agree to let me borrow this?" Natalia said, frowning. "He doesn't just let anyone borrow his bloody invisibility cloak."

"No, we'll try not to fall asleep," George explained. "Can't make any promises though."

As he said this, Fred noticed George's eyelids droop closed and George ceased to say anything else. Fred felt as though he were about to do the same, but fought the sleepiness off and started talking to Natalia.

"Thanks for coming and keeping us company," he said sleepily. His thoughts felt fuzzy but he continued talking. "You know, you really are the best, Talia."

"Thanks Fred," she said, laughing. She grabbed his hand and intertwined their fingers.

"You know Talia, I fancy you. I really do," Fred said. He felt himself giving in to sleep although he was trying to resist it.

"Go to sleep Fred, that's the stuff Madame Pomfrey gave you talking," Natalia said, laughing again as Fred finally gave in and fell asleep.

-

It was finally the day that the champions for the tournament were being chosen - Halloween. Now that Fred was thinking about it, he was a little bit queasy thinking about Natalia competing in the tournament. He was afraid that something would happen to her. He tried to keep these thoughts out of his head, but they kept finding their way back into the front of his mind one way or another.

"Fred!" He heard Natalia say his name, snapping him back to reality. "Thought I lost you there, I've been trying to get your attention for at least a minute. Whatcha thinking about?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing... just spacing out, I guess," Fred said. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that I'm really nervous. I don't even know if I'm nervous for myself at this point, I'm just nervous for whoever gets picked," Natalia said. "But that doesn't make any sense, does it?"

"Not really," Fred said, grinning. He didn't care if she wasn't making sense, he really enjoyed listening to her rambling. "Any idea where George went?" He asked, looking around the common room. Fred and Natalia were the only ones there aside from Ron and Hermione, who were huddled at a table in the corner. He noticed that George had been doing a disappearing act the last few days, leaving him and Natalia alone without notice. He wasn't being very subtle about anything.

"No idea. He went upstairs about ten minutes ago mumbling something about Potions," Natalia said, a puzzled look on her face. "He's been caring a lot about homework lately, it's strange."

"Yeah... strange," Fred agreed, nodding. He mumbled under his breath too quietly for Natalia to hear, "Real subtle, Georgie."

-

"The time has come to choose our champions for the Triwizard Tournament," Dumbledore said after the dessert from the Halloween feast had been cleared. The Goblet of Fire was sitting in front of him on a small table, a blue-ish flame emitting from it. "I also remind you that once your name has been chosen from the Goblet, there is no backing out. You are all magically obligated to compete in the tournament. With that being said, let us see who are champions are! If you are chosen, please step through the door behind the staff table!"

He stepped up to the Goblet and waited as a small piece of paper was spit out of the Goblet. "The champion for Durmstrang is..." he paused while he unfolded the paper, "Viktor Krum!" There was a large eruption of cheers from the entire Great Hall as Viktor Krum, the seeker for the Bulgarian Quidditch World Cup team, stood up and did as Dumbledore had said, disappearing behind the staff table through the door.

The same thing happened when Fleur Delacour had been announced as the champion for Beauxbatons. Then it was time to announce the champion for Hogwarts. Fred felt Natalia grab his hand underneath the table as the paper flew out of the Goblet.

"The Hogwarts champion in the Triwizard Tournament is..." Dumbledore began. Fred didn't need to hear the name as Natalia tackled him in a bone crushing hug and the Gryffindor table erupted in cheers. He felt Natalia release his hug and watched as she disappeared through the door behind the staff table, the biggest smile he had ever seen across her face. Dumbledore started to speak again, but shortly into his speech, the Goblet began making sputtering noises and it spit out another piece of paper. The entire Hall went silent as Dumbledore caught the paper and stared at it for a few seconds. Nobody dared to speak.

"Harry Potter," Dumbledore said in a loud voice that was void of emotion. Fred looked across the table to Harry, who had a confused, fearful look on his face. How could Harry enter the tournament if he was only fourteen? Dumbledore specifically said a person had be at least seventeen years of age. Surely there must've been some mistake.

Harry stood up and followed Dumbledore through the same door that the three champions had gone through, the Great Hall remaining in what was almost silence for a couple minutes following their departure. Professor McGonagall stood up from the staff table and said in a loud voice, "Alright, the feast is officially concluded. Congratulations to our champions. Please make your way back to your common rooms. Thank you."

Fred and George got up from the table a few minutes after McGonagall made her announcement. "How you feeling, Freddie?" George asked.

"I don't really know. I'm a little scared for her, Georgie. I don't want anything to happen," Fred said as they walked back to the common room.

"Understandable Freddie, but Talia's a big girl. She can manage herself, you know. She'll do just fine," George said, patting him on the back. "You know she'll tell you the same thing as I just did, but maybe with a little more attitude."

"Yeah," Fred said, and they both laughed. "Want to stay down here and wait her for her to get back?"

"Sure, shouldn't be that long," George agreed. The pair sat in the common room for another hour before Natalia returned. The huge smile that she had had on her face from the last time the twins saw her when she disappeared through the door was replaced with a much less pleasant one. She had a frown on her face and she looked like she had been crying.

"What's wrong?" Fred said, frowning as Natalia sat in between the twins. "You looked so happy when your name was announced."

"I'm scared," Natalia said. It sounded like she was about to burst out crying again. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy that my name got chosen, but we sat down and talked to Dumbledore and everyone for over an hour. When Harry's name got chosen, it made it even more scary... people have died in this tournament. What if I get hurt? What if I die!?" She said, wiping away the few tears that had escaped her eyes. Fred could only guess that it hadn't been much time since she had stopped crying by the sound of her voice.

"So Harry is competing, then?" George asked, to which Natalia responded with a nod.

"His name came out of the Goblet, he's magically obligated to compete even if he's not supposed to," Natalia explained. "Everyone thinks that Harry put his name into the tournament, but I know he didn't. There was no way he put his name in to compete. You could just tell that he didn't want to be there. He had this look of pure terror on his face when they told him that he had to compete. He definitely didn't put his name in there." She shook her head after she said this. "I don't know how I'm going to get through the Tournament. I'm going to be killed."

Fred wrapped an arm around Natalia's shoulder, "Everything's gonna be okay, Talia. There's a reason you got chosen to compete... You're brilliant! You have an amazing chance to win this tournament."

"You think so?" Natalia said, resting her head on Fred's shoulder. If his stomach wasn't flipping around inside his body, he would have been completely content.

"I know so," he said, smiling and resting his head on top of hers. George began to clear his throat; Fred had completely forgotten that his twin was there.

"Well, it's late. I'm going to head up and get ready for bed," George said. Fred responded only by rolling his eyes, knowing that George was giving the pair alone time and once again not being very subtle about it.

"So, are you happy you got chosen? I mean... overall," Fred asked Natalia as George headed up the stairs ever-so-slowly, probably trying to eavesdrop on as much of the conversation as he possibly could.

"Definitely," Natalia mumbled, a smile on her face. "But I'm scared. I don't know how I'm going to get through this thing... probably with a few mental breakdowns, to be honest."

Fred pulled her into a hug, "You know you're going to be brilliant, right? You're going to win this thing, I just know it. You have nothing to worry about."

"It's not going to be that easy, Fred," Natalia said, giving him a watery smile. "But I'll try to win this. I'll just be happy if I come out alive."

"I'm telling you, you're going to win. Eternal glory. Everyone will know your name. I promise," Fred said, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"Pinky promise?" Natalia said, pulling away from the hug and holding out her pinky finger.

"And kiss my thumb, of course," Fred said.


	9. Chapter Nine

**re-edited on June 13, 2013**

"Freddie, there's only so long this can go on," George said in a hushed voice. The twins sat in the common room alone. It was particularly early on a Saturday morning, which explained why there was no one else awake and in the common room. "She obviously likes you, you obviously like her, and you need to jump for the opportunity."

Fred shook his head and argued, "What if she says no? I'm not only humiliated but I've lost my best friend. She's got a lot on her plate and maybe she doesn't want a relationship right now, whether she fancies me or not."

"She's not going to say no, there's absolutely no way. Plus, you're supposed to be a ladies' man, what's the matter with you?!" George demanded.

"I don't know, this one is different, Georgie... this is special." As he said this, his eyes lit up. That was when George really realized that his brother had it bad. "I can't explain it, I guess."

"I understand you, Freddie. Everything will work out, don't worry about it." He gave his twin a reassuring smile as a half asleep Natalia appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

"I thought I heard you two in here," Natalia said, rubbing her eyes and stifling a yawn. Fred couldn't help but think how adorable she looked, still in her pajamas and half asleep.

"How could you hear us? We weren't even being loud!" George said, pouting.

"It's eight in the morning on a Saturday. A little noise goes a long way, boys," Natalia said, sitting in between them on the couch. "I could hear you all the way up in our dormitory."

"Whatever you say. You're lying, I'm convinced," Fred said, rolling his eyes at her and shaking his head. "There's no way you could hear us all the way up there."

"Oh, but I really could. You two woke me up," she said nodding. "Are you two hungry? Because I'm starving and I could really use some breakfast." As the three got up and headed out of the common room, George raised his eyebrow at Fred, then winked. This went unnoticed by Natalia.

Even a few days after being chosen for the tournament, Natalia felt her insides twist around with anxiousness every time she thought about it. Who could blame her, though? She had no idea what she was going to face in the coming months and, at least in her own opinion, she felt that she had every right to.

She walked down to breakfast arm in arm with both of the twins, talking excitedly about what they thought the first task was going to be. Natalia hid her nervous feelings pretty well because neither Fred nor George picked up on anything except happy anxiousness from her. They probably thought that she just wanted to get to the First Task already because she was excited, not that she was upset, nervous, and scared for it.

Even though she was feeling nervous herself, she couldn't imagine how Harry was feeling. He hadn't even chosen to compete; someone had set him up and put his name in there without his knowledge. Nobody in the school believed him besides a few people, herself included, and everyone had resorted to ignoring him or giving him dirty looks anytime he walked by.

"Hello Harry," Natalia said cheerfully, sitting down next to him.

"Hey Talia," Harry said, giving her a half-hearted smile.

"What's up? You look kind of bummed out or upset about something," Natalia said, frowning at him.

"Didn't you hear?" George piped up from next to Fred.

"Hear what?" She gave George a puzzled look.

"Hermione's in the hospital wing," Harry said flatly. He then glanced toward the other end of the table where Ron sat with some third year Gryffindor boys. "Ron isn't happy about it and he's not talking to me anymore."

"Oh, Ron is a bloody idiot," Natalia said, rolling her eyes. "He'll come to his senses, don't worry about it."

"I sure hope so," Harry said, nodding.

"Everything will be alright, Harry... really," she said and before she knew it, she had begun to reassure him not only about his friends, but about the entire tournament. "You're brilliant. You're the most experienced fourteen year old I know and you're probably more qualified than I am to be in this tournament. Your friends will support you when you really need it, I promise you that." Although Harry didn't say anything, his eyes were giving her all the thanks she needed. She patted his back sympathetically. "We're in this one together, too... even if we're technically against each other."

A few days later during her Transfiguration class, an owl had flown into the room through an open window and caused quite a commotion trying to get the letter to Professor McGonagall. It flew around in circles around her head while she tried to pull the letter out of its feet and when she finally could reach it, it would fly just out of her reach. After a few minutes of this, the owl finally dropped the letter on her desk in the front of the classroom.

Professor McGonagall opened the letter and stood silently for a few moments, her eyes scanning over the letter before looking up and walking over to Natalia, "Mr. Bagman requests that you join him and the other champions in the Great Hall for a photo session and an interview for The Daily Prophet."

Natalia sighed and said, "I'd rather not go. I don't really like that much attention," but she didn't say another word when McGonagall gave her a stern look. She quietly packed up her things as class resumed and made her way to the Great Hall. She was extremely disappointed to find out that the "interview" was a total waste of her time, especially since she was missing class because of it. Not only was her interview with the one and only Rita Skeeter, but she spent an hour in a room with Harry before coming out and getting a couple minutes from herself, Fleur, and Krum.

After the interviews, she didn't know if it was considered to be multiple interviews because Rita Skeeter had really only spoken with Harry, the weighing of their wands began. It was nothing interesting. Mr. Ollivander, who had sold Natalia her wand, was the one inspecting all of their wands. She felt her own insides well up with pride when he commented on her own wand, how strong it was and the good condition of it. Her wand - 11 3/4 inches, hard flexibility, made of vine and with a phoenix feather core - was one of her most prized possessions.

"Vine wands are very rare, you know," Mr. Ollivander said as he examined her wand. "They have a very strong connection to their owners, who are usually very unique individuals. Very deep personalities."

After that, they took some quick photographs - it was not a big surprise that Harry was pulled to the front - and then they were released. She had gotten out of her last class of the day and had an entire afternoon free to herself. She decided she would curl up in the Gryffindor common room and read another Muggle book that she had taken with her to school; she hadn't had much time do this lately because she'd been so busy. She was one of the only ones in the common room and it was fairly quiet there. But as soon as she'd settled into the couch and had become absorbed in her book, Harry and Ron had come into the common room, midway through an argument.

"Well, if you hadn't entered your name in that bloody tournament-" Ron started but Harry cut him off.

"For the last time, I didn't enter my name, Ron! Someone else did! I told you that." The few people that were in the common room had stopped what they were doing to stare at what was unfolding in front of them.

Natalia decided it wasn't such a bad idea to step into the argument before someone got angry enough to use magic - that someone probably would've been Ron - and said, "Harry, Ron... I thought we got over this argument. I thought you were friends again."

"I would never be friends with someone who only chases fame and doesn't care about the people who really care about him," Ron said bitterly.

"Why would you say that? I care about you, and I care about Hermione!" Harry retorted.

"That's why you sent her to the hospital wing, right?" Ron demanded.

"I didn't do that! Malfoy cursed her, it wasn't me!" Harry said, trying not to raise his voice. His attempts were failing.

"But you could have prevented it..." Ron said, and he stormed off in the direction of his dormitory. Instead of following him, Harry sat down on the couch next to Natalia, a defeated look on his face.

"Don't worry about him, Harry. He'll come to his senses," Natalia said. Then, she decided to change the subject. "Are you worried at all for the first task? It's in three days." She couldn't believe how fast the time had gone. It was already November 21.

"I've been trying not to think about it, honestly. Hagrid said he's taking me somewhere tonight and it has to do with the first task," Harry said. Natalia raised an eyebrow at him. "Don't worry, whatever he decides to tell me, I'll let you know."

"I'll stay up and wait for you. Even if it's a small amount of information, it's better than where I'm at right now," Natalia explained. "I'm so nervous, I can't even imagine how you're feeling. At least I volunteered myself for this."

Later that night she, Fred, and George - she'd made them stay up with her to wait for Harry - were sitting around in the common room. They were both half asleep, but she was so jittery and anxious that she couldn't see how anyone would be able to sleep at a time like this. It wasn't until after two in the morning that he came back through the common room door, a shocked expression on his face. He was out of breath.

"Dragons. That's the first task," he said.


	10. Chapter Ten

**re-edited on June 13, 2013**

"Bloody dragons?! Why don't you just burn me alive?" Natalia exclaimed. "That's it, I'm going to die in the first task, I'm not even going to make it through the whole tournament! I'm going to be dead in less than three days!"

"No you're not," Fred assured her. "You know what you need to do is go to sleep. In the morning, we can get up and go to the library and try to find a way for you to fight off a dragon."

"Did you just suggest... we go to the library?" George said, his mouth open slightly.

"I don't think I know you anymore," Natalia said, shaking her head and letting out a nervous laugh. "The real Fred Weasley would not go to the library."

With that remark, she decided that Fred was right even if she didn't want to admit it; it was probably best to try to sleep. But when she lay down in her bed, all she could do was cuddle with her teddy bear and stare at the ceiling. She was even curled up in the sweater that she had stolen from the twins. Even that didn't seem to help her fall asleep and it seemed that there was no way sleep was coming to her anytime soon. As the sun started to rise, she felt herself drift off into a light sleep but she was soon awakened by her roommates getting up and going down to breakfast. She couldn't have slept more than an hour.

After she was awake, she didn't fall back asleep. She stared at her ceiling for a few more hours until she supposed it was a normal hour for the twins to be awake. Her thoughts kept going back to something terrible happening to her because of the first task and having to fight a dragon. She wondered what would become of Fred and George, Harry, Hermione, Ginny... her father. She knew her father didn't care about her that much, but it would surely hurt him in some way if she died, right? He wouldn't be able to brush it off after raising her from only a year old. There was no way he could just forget her dying. She was still his daughter even if he didn't accept the fact that she was a witch and blamed her for her mother leaving them.

She walked down the stairs, still in her pajamas and went up to the twins' dorm; they were awake but still lying in their beds, lazily talking to one another about nothing in particular. "Merlin, Talia, you look terrible," George remarked as she sat down on the floor in between their beds.

"Thanks, George. That's what typically happens when you pull an almost all-nighter... as you can tell, I didn't sleep very well at all," Natalia explained, sighing. "I just keep thinking about the task... bloody dragons! I have no idea how I'm going to fight it. No. Bloody. Idea." She continued mumbling something about how stupid dragons were.

"No, you're going to be fine. Listen, we'll go up to the library and check out some books on dragons-" Fred began. Natalia quickly cut him off.

"No! We can't check them out... what if someone can look back and see, then they'll know that I know about the first task and clearly, we're not supposed to know. I could get in a lot of trouble, guys," Natalia explained. "We need to stay up there and read them." She stifled a yawn.

"How about we go up and you can stay here and sleep?" George offered. Natalia shook her head. She couldn't let them do that.

"This is for me, I'm not sending you two up there to do my dirty work," she said. With that being said, she got up. "I'm going to go put on some decent clothes, I expect you two are going to do the same and I'll meet you in the common room in a few minutes. I'm not making you guys do the dirty work for me, but I am making you two do the dirty work _with _me."

A few minutes later, the trio was off to eat a quick breakfast before spending their Saturday in the library. Natalia only ate a couple pieces of toast because in addition to being completely exhausted but not being able to sleep, she didn't really feel like eating anything either. She had almost completely lost her appetite. The twins, on the other hand, ate full meals extremely quickly before they were off to the library.

"I'm a mess, guys. I don't want to eat anything because I feel like I'm going to throw up and I'm running on an hour of sleep... what am I supposed to do? If I keep up with this, I'm going to get sick but I don't know what I can do about it. I can't make myself any less nervous and if I'm nervous then I'm going to feel like this," Natalia said, running her hand through her hair as they walked through the castle.

"We're going to find a way for you to overcome a dragon, that's what we're going to do. Then, you're going to be in first place after the first task and it's going to be brilliant," George said, Fred nodding in agreement.

"I told you guys, I don't want to talk like that, what if I get killed by this dragon?" Natalia said. This made her insides flip in anxiousness. "Because that's entirely possible. I'm going to be dealing with a full-size dragon. Even if I do survive, I'm not going to be able to get first place. There is absolutely no way. I'll probably be in last."

They entered the library and split up with the agreement to meet in ten minutes with any books that might be helpful. The only book that Natalia found in those ten minutes was a general book on different species of dragons and one that was full of different advanced spells. It seemed the twins had come up with similar things. They all sat down to begin reading.

Natalia was finding it increasingly hard to stay awake, however, as she tried to read through the book she had found on general characteristics of different species of dragons. She felt her eyes drooping closed and her head becoming heavier and falling forward. It was extremely difficult to fight and after a while, she finally gave up and gave in to falling asleep. Her eyelids were too heavy and her body was too tired to try and resist it anymore and with her head resting on her hand, she fell asleep.

"Should we wake her up?" Fred asked.

George shook his head. "No, let her sleep. She didn't really sleep last night and judging by how she's been acting, she isn't going to be sleeping for a couple of days. Let her sleep and we'll see if we can find anything."

But finding anything was proving to be difficult and the best ideas they could come up with would be to use an extremely powerful _confundus _charm or - they had found this bit of information in one of the dragon books - to simply stare down the dragon and hope for the best. The book had said that a sign of dominance for dragons was to stare at one another. Although Natalia was a human, not a dragon, they hoped that this could possibly work.

A few hours later, after they had searched through every book on the table they were at, they decided to wake Natalia up. She had not woken up once since falling asleep at the table and when they did wake her up, she whined about how lazy she was and how it was such a far walk to the common room from there.

"Do you want me to carry you?" Fred asked, laughing a little bit and smirking at her. She nodded in response and Fred picked her up. "You're lucky you're so light."

"Correction, you're lucky I'm light. You're the one carrying me," Natalia said as they began walking to the common room. She wrapped her arms around his neck and before long had fallen asleep again. "She really hasn't been sleeping well the last few days, has she?"

"I don't think so, Freddie boy. I think she's really stressed out and it's all catching up to her today," George agreed.

When they got to the common room, Fred lay Natalia down on the couch and woke her up again to tell them what they had discovered from their hours of reading.

"So basically, I either have to confuse the hell out of the dragon... or stare at it until it backs down?" Natalia asked.

"Precisely," Fred and George responded at the same time.

"Personally, we think that the latter would work well even though it seems like it wouldn't," George said.

"And we're going to talk to Charlie about it since he's here with the dragons and he'll definitely answer our question," Fred continued.

"Wait, Charlie's here? How do you guys know?" Natalia asked.

"We saw him earlier, walking around with Dumbledore. He's here with the dragons taking care of them, although we're not supposed to know why he's here..." Fred said.

"But, of course, we do," George finished.

"Right. So I'm just going to go out there and stare at the dragon until it decides that I'm the winner and then I walk away? That's actually going to work?" Natalia said. She was very frustrated with the results of the library search, hoping that they would have found something a little better than staring at a creature that could kill her with one breath of fire.

"Like we said, we'll talk to Charlie about it tomorrow and see," George said.

"Guys... the task is in two days. I don't have time to be fooling around with things like that... so I bloody hope that you two are right about this. You know I trust you," Natalia said, putting her head in her hands.

"I'm going to go find Charlie right now and talk to him, alright? If he tells me something better, we'll go with that. You don't need to stress out about this, we're going to help you," George said. He got up and walked out of the common room, leaving Fred and Natalia alone.

"I know you haven't been sleeping the last few nights," Fred said, frowning at her. "You're going to make yourself sick if you don't sleep."

"I'm just worrying myself a lot," Natalia explained. "I have so much on my mind and I just can't seem to let it all go enough to fall asleep. It's really bad. Last night, I couldn't stop imagining scenarios in my head of what would happen if the dragon kills me. What would happen to all of you guys, how sad everyone would be..." her voice lowered significantly. "and my father." She felt her eyes well up with tears that she couldn't hold back as she mentioned her father.

"I'm sure he'd care, Talia. You're perfect, I don't know why anyone wouldn't care if you were gone," he said, wrapping an arm around her. "And you listen to me, you're not going to die. You're going to be perfectly fine and you need to stop thinking like that. Be positive."

"That's kind of hard," she said, wiping her eyes and leaning into Fred's shoulder.

"I know it's hard, but you know what? You've been through a whole hell of a lot and I think that a dragon should be pretty scared to face you," Fred said. He was glad to see this got a chuckle out of her. "I know how to help you sleep." He grabbed her hand to help her up and led her into the Sixth Boys' dormitory. He dug through his trunk for a few moments before pulling out one of his old sweaters that he'd gotten for Christmas. "It smells like home and I know how comfortable you feel there. Hopefully it'll help calm you down a little and help you get to sleep."

"Thanks, you're a life saver," Natalia said, tackling him in a hug.


	11. Chapter Eleven

The following days, they were nowhere farther in their research and Charlie had agreed that "asserting her dominance" was the best way to defeat a dragon. She didn't really have much else to go off of, although she was spending all of her free time in the library searching, and this terrified her. Her best idea was to stare at the dragon.

The night before the task, she knew she wasn't going to sleep at all and the twins opted to stay up with her. Together they sat around and played wizard's chess all night and shared a couple butterbeers. They all agreed that maybe having a little bit of alcohol in her would help her sleep, and she fell asleep around sunrise while lying on the floor of their dormitory. Fred took this as an opportunity to do something that he had been debating for the last week. He grabbed a quill, some ink and a piece of parchment and began writing a note. Once he finished writing it, he sealed it in an envelope and decided he should try to get some sleep as well.

_Dear Natalia,  
I don't really know how else to tell you this, but I like you. A lot. I don't know when it started or anything, I just know I do. I like you so much that I'm nervous to even say this to your face, so I'm writing this letter to you. The good news is that you're probably in a good mood because you beat the dragon, but the bad news is that you could reject me after this.  
Also, I have a secret to tell you about when you, George, and I all got drunk for your 17th birthday. Remind me to tell you, it's a biggie. Well, I guess I'll see you in a little while. Bye._

_Fred_

-

Unfortunately seven in the morning came way too soon for Natalia and when Fred tried to wake up her, she smacked him in the face. "Ow, Talia, that hurt!"

"Sorry, Fred... reflexes," she told him, blushing and laughing.

"That's alright, would you like to head down to breakfast?" Fred asked.

"You should probably just go down without me, I'm not hungry," Natalia responded, shaking her head. That was partially a lie. Her stomach was growling but she also felt like she was going to throw up if she decided to eat anything. She didn't know if she wanted to risk it, but Fred made the decision for her.

"No, you need to eat something. You're going to get sick if you don't. You need your strength and the only way you're going to get it is by eating something," Fred explained. He basically forced her to get up and head down to breakfast with him, but in the end she was grateful as she scarfed down an entire plate of food in twenty minutes; she hadn't realized how hungry she was until a plate filled with delicious-smelling food had been placed in front of her. The nausea she had been feeling had subsided a little once the food had settled in her stomach as well.

After breakfast, the day flashed by in a quick blur and before she knew it, Barty Crouch had explained the task to them and she was about to discover which dragon she was facing. She closed her eyes and reached into the pouch in front of her, pulling out a mini version a dark green and brown dragon who was blowing fake blue smoke out of its mouth. The real dragon's smoke, she supposed, would be much more real and much more dangerous. She sighed as she heard Barty Crouch say, "The Swedish Short Snout... I'd be careful with that fire, young lady. You'll be going third."

The other three champions chose their dragons and the order they would be going in. She winced as Harry pulled out a terrifying looking dragon that was completely covered in spikes, then gave him a sympathetic look. He gave her a look back and she could see the fear in his eyes. Natalia was in the same mindset as him. Her means of fighting this thing that could kill her within a few seconds was to look it in the eye. She sat down nervously as Fleur went out first and then when she was finished, Krum.

She thought it was more terrifying hearing the noises the crowd was making because she couldn't see what was going on. There were oh's, screams, and cheering and she could only guess what was going on and what Fleur and Krum had decided to do to defeat the dragon. There was no mistaking, however, the sound she heard when the champion got the egg that Barty Crouch had described to them earlier.

As the crowd cheered for Viktor and a cheering of "Krum" had begun, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. This was it, she was going to be facing a dragon. The Swedish Short Snout. She suddenly remembered from one of the books that its fire was deadly and could kill you in less than fifteen seconds and felt a nervous jolt in her stomach. She stood up, closed her eyes again and took another deep breath, walking towards where the curtain opened up to the arena. She made eye contact with Harry, giving him a halfhearted smile and a wave.

The cannon sounded, which she knew meant that she was supposed to walk out into the arena. Her insides churned nervously and she felt like she was about to lose the breakfast that she had eaten. As soon as she walked out into the arena, the Swedish Short Snout made a terrible loud noise and blew fire towards her. It missed her by a few feet, but she could feel the great heat that came from it.

She wanted to run away from the dragon, to quit the tournament at that moment and run away and never look back. She was terrified, her body trembling nervously all over... But she knew that she couldn't. So, she held her chin up high and stared directly into the dragon's eyes.

The arena was completely silent for a few moments reacting to what she was doing. The dragon was staring at her, its eyes staring deep into her own, and then it blew more fire towards her. This time, she felt the hot fire touch her right arm, the excruciating pain almost instant. Her eyes welled up with tears and her knees were beginning to buckle underneath her, but she stood her ground. She didn't break eye contact with the dragon.

The horrible noises coming from the audience were not helping her self confidence in that moment. She heard some people asking what she was doing, making noises in response to the injury in her arm that probably wasn't pretty, and the twins cheering her on. There were more people than just them cheering for her, but their voices in particular stuck out to her. She smiled when she heard that, even though she felt as though she were going to pass out from the pain in her arm.

She stood like this with the dragon for another whole minute. It was the longest minute of her life, feeling like an hour, and she supposed that she looked absolutely insane to everyone in the arena but finally, the dragon's head bent down low and she supposed that was a sign that she could move towards it.

She took a hesitant step towards the dragon and when it didn't move, her pace quickened a little. Her head was spinning and her vision was becoming fuzzy as she approached it. She knew she needed to be quick and get the egg before she passed out. She saw the nest filled with eggs, and the golden one that was in it. When she picked it up, she stuck it under her left arm as the arena erupted in cheers and screams.

She stumbled back extremely slowly towards the champions' tent. It was becoming increasingly difficult to see and she was becoming aware of the pain in her arm. She didn't even want to look at it, but walked into the tent and collapsed in the nearest chair. A few seconds later, she felt herself black out.

When she opened her eyes, she was laying in a bed, but since she realized they were still in the champions' tent, she figured that she hadn't passed out for that long. She couldn't feel her right arm at all, it was as though she didn't have one anymore. She looked over to see Madame Pomfrey rubbing some type of ointment on her arm, which looked to be burnt all around from a few inches below her shoulder all the way down to her fingers. It wasn't very pretty.

"I put an enchantment on your arm so that you won't be able to feel it, at least for a little while. I'm rubbing burn ointment on it right now which should help to keep it clean and heal it faster," Madame Pomfrey explained when she saw that she was awake and watching her. "I'm going to give you a couple days worth of potion to help keep the pain away as well, deary."

"Thanks, Madame Pomfrey," Natalia said, smiling at her. She noticed that Fred and George were sitting in chairs next to the bed she was in, which didn't surprise her. She flashed them a grin. "Hey boys."

"You idiot... Why didn't you dodge the bloody fire?" Fred mumbled, shaking his head. He had a huge smile on his face.

"Congrats Talia," George said. He dropped his voice. "You're in second place."

Natalia was shocked. "Second?!"

"It would have been first, but you got some deductions on points for that," George explained, pointing to her still-numb arm.

"Second is amazing, second is more than amazing!" Natalia said, a grin on her face.

"You're all cleaned up. I'd like to see you back in the hospital wing tomorrow first thing in the morning, though. I want to make sure that burn heals the best it can," Madame Pomfrey said.

"Cool," Natalia said. "Am I free to go?"

"Yes, but please be extremely careful. Make sure you take this potion if you need to for the pain. Tomorrow, I'll apply more burn cream for you. Come right up to the hospital wing if the potion isn't enough." She handed Natalia two vials of a purple liquid, which Fred took from her because she has having trouble holding them with one hand.

After Madame Pomfrey put Natalia's arm in a sling, the three of them decided to walk back up to the castle together, although their pace was quite slow. No one minded the pace, however, because the twins relayed all of the information about the First Task to Natalia.

"I'm starting to feel my arm again," Natalia said. "It doesn't feel good."

"That's okay. I know that everyone was planning on throwing you and Harry a party in the common room tonight, but if you want to just stay in the dorm and hang out then call it a night early, we're okay with that," George said.

"We can sit around and have a celebratory butterbeer or something," Fred offered.

"No, I don't want to miss the party!" Natalia protested. "We can party, I'll be okay."

"I can't believe the way that you just stared down that dragon, Talia! It was amazing!" Seamus Finnigan exclaimed as a group of Gryffindors sat around in the chairs and sofa in the common room. Fred, Natalia, George, Ginny and Harry were squeezed onto a chair. Seamus, Dean Ron and Hermione were spread out on various chairs that had been moved to make a circle. A table filled with bottles of butterbeer was in the middle.

"From what I hear, Harry's idea was pretty fantastic as well. Didn't get to see that fancy broom work, though... Guess I passed out before that," Natalia said, frowning. She really wished she had been able to watch Harry. Judging by what she had heard, she definitely would have loved it.

The common room around them was filled with various other Gryffindors all talking excitedly about what had happened earlier that day. It made it impossible to talk quietly and Natalia was beginning to get a dull headache along with the aching in her arm.

She decided to take some of the potion that Madame Pomfrey had given her around midnight and at that point, not many people had gone upstairs to their dormitories. The common room was still buzzing with conversation and Natalia could only guess that at least a hundred butterbeers had been consumed between everyone. The potion was making her brain fuzzy with sleepiness and she had long stopped paying attention to the conversation at hand.

"You want to go upstairs?" Fred whispered in her ear. She nodded, her eyelids drooping with tiredness.

"My arm hurts. I don't know how I'm going to change into my pajamas or get comfortable enough to sleep," Natalia whispered back to him.

"I think you'll manage," Fred said. "You look like you're about to fall asleep any second."

"Mmmm," Natalia mumbled. "I am. This potion is making me fall asleep. I don't even want to move."

"I have a nice comfy shoulder," Fred offered, half jokingly. "You should probably go upstairs and sleep in your bed, though."

Natalia shook her head and rested it on Fred's shoulder. "Going upstairs would be better for you."

"I know," Natalia said.

"You want me to carry you upstairs and you can sleep in my bed?" Fred asked. "I'd carry you to your own bed, but I can't exactly do that."

"Mmm, you can do whatever you want," Natalia whispered, barely awake. "I'm fine staying right here."

"What happened to that note I gave you?" Fred asked.

"I stuck it in my arm pocket... It got burnt... by the dragon," Natalia replied, drifting off to sleep.

"Think she's tired, Freddie?" George asked, chuckling.

"I think it's the potion," Fred said, laughing and wrapping an arm around her shoulder, being careful not to touch her burns.

"Or it could be because she battled a dragon and it's almost one in the morning," Ginny offered from next to George.

"Gin, you want to help her upstairs and get ready for bed if I wake her up? I think that'd be better for her," Fred said.

"Yeah, that's fine," Ginny said, laughing as Fred shook Natalia lightly.

"Talia, you need to go to bed," Fred said.

"I'm comfortable," she mumbled without opening her eyes. She cuddled more into Fred's side, which earned a laugh from a couple of the Gryffindors sitting with them.

"Come on, Tals. You need your beauty rest," Ginny said, getting up and pulling on her arm. Reluctantly, and maybe without even waking up, Natalia followed Ginny upstairs to go to bed.

"I think she's got it bad too, Freddie. You can only blame other things for so long," George explained after Natalia and Ginny had disappear up the stairs.


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Wow thank you guys! I have 32 followers and cannot thank you all enough. Enjoy!**

Natalia woke up the next morning with a pounding in her head and very bad pains in her arm. She noticed she was lying on her arm with the burns on it, probably from rolling around in her sleep, and quickly sat up in her bed. She didn't remember getting to her bed or changing into pajamas, figuring that the potion had something to do with it. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep on Fred's shoulder.

Her stomach did a back flip at the thought of him, which she found strange. This happened, of course, when she thought of boys that she fancied and that she could see herself being in a relationship with... ones that she saw as more than friends. Was she developing a crush on him? He was like a brother to her and they had grown up together... But was it really so surprising?

Fred was handsome, she had to admit; he had a dazzling smile and always smelt extremely good. He gave great hugs and always made her laugh. Most importantly, of course, he cared greatly about her. Yes, she thought, she might have a crush on Fred Weasley.

She changed into some jeans and a t-shirt - it took her almost ten minutes to do so - and then went down to the common room to find it completely spotless from the previous night's activities. She also found that it was completely empty, figuring that they had all gone to sleep much later than she herself had.

She decided to go up into the twins' dorm, wake them up, and make them get up to come down to breakfast with her, but when she went into their dorm, she found that they were already awake. They were sitting on the floor of the dorm between their bunks talking in hushed voices with one another and Natalia was sure that she heard her name somewhere in there.

"Morning boys," she said, raising an eyebrow at them.

"Morning," they responded simultaneously, trying not to look suspicious.

"Do you two want to walk down to the hospital wing with me and then get some breakfast?" She asked.

"It's almost noon, Talia. They're serving lunch soon," Fred explained and both the twins let out a little chuckle.

"What time did I go to bed last night?" She asked. The last time she remembered looking at the clock was around midnight and there was no way she had slept for twelve hours.

"Maybe around one," George told her. She had slept for eleven hours.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up?! I was supposed to go see Madame Pomfrey this morning for my arm," she said. Madame Pomfrey was probably waiting for her to come down if it was almost noontime. "Come on, at least one of you come with me down there."

"Well I'm still in my pajamas," George said, frowning. "Why don't you two go and I'll change and meet you in the common room then we can head down for lunch?"

The three agreed on this plan rather quickly and Fred and Natalia began walking down towards the hospital wing.

"You really were brilliant yesterday," Fred complimented.

"All I did was stare down a dragon, it wasn't that spectacular. Plus, Krum and Harry are tied for first and I'm only in second," Natalia told him.

"Only in second? Talia, second is great. You're pretty brave to only go into that task with the plan of staring at it. You know that, right?" Fred said.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's make fun of the girl who can't even be clever enough to come up with a back up plan," Natalia said, laughing and rolling her eyes.

"I'm not making fun of you! It was a clever thing to do, I didn't see any of the other champions walking in and just staring at a dragon."

"Pinky promise you think it was clever?" Natalia asked, stretching her good arm out to him with her pinky up.

"And kiss my thumb," he said, linking his pinky with hers as they continued walking.

"Have you put any thought into who you're asking to the ball?" Fred asked her as they approached the hospital wing. Fred opened the door for her and they walked inside.

"Well, I have been think-" Natalia started, but was cut off by Madame Pomfrey.

"Oh there you are, deary! I was starting to get worried. It's almost noon and I was expecting you early this morning," she explained.

"Sorry, the potion you gave me made me really tired. I slept almost twelve hours," Natalia said, her cheeks flushing a light shade of pink.

"That's quite alright. Sit down on one of the beds, we'll get you all cleaned up and change the bandages and such," Madame Pomfrey said.

The ordeal of changing her bandages and cleaning her burns did not go as smoothly as Natalia had hoped. She had Fred sit in a chair next to her and he let her squeeze his hand the entire time, but she felt bad because she had a death grip on his hand to the point where her knuckles were white. It took about twenty minutes and all parties involved were happy when it was finished.

"Thanks for coming down with me," Natalia said as she and Fred left the hospital wing.

"No problem," Fred said, smiling as they fell into a companionable silence. Fred soon broke that silence by mentioning the Yule Ball again. "So the ball is in a month, have you thought about who you want to go with?"

"I've been thinking about asking a certain person, but I don't know if it's weird for the girl to ask the guy," Natalia responded.

"I'm sure if you decide not to ask him, you'll have a lot of offers. I mean, look at you! You're beautiful... plus you're a champion. Everyone wants to go with a champion, don't they?" Fred said.

"I suppose so," Natalia said, nodding. "Have you thought about asking anyone?"

"I've had my eye on someone. I'm sure if I don't ask her soon she'll have a date, but I'm a tad nervous about asking her," Fred explained. Natalia found herself upset that Fred was talking about asking another girl because she was talking about him.

"Well, if neither of us find dates, then we're each other's backups... Deal?" Natalia said.

"Deal," Fred agreed, then he stopped walking and grabbed Natalia's good hand. "Hey Talia?"

"Yeah?" Natalia asked, looking up to look him in the eyes. He wrapped his arms around her neck and leaned in to kiss her. Before she could even think of what to do, her body was already responding and kissing him back. His hands were running through her hair and she was smiling into the kiss. Then she pulled away.

"I... I can't do this," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know what I'm doing."

She started to run towards the common room... but why was she running? She definitely liked Fred, but she didn't know if she was ready for a relationship, especially with the tournament happening. Her head was spinning and she was confused and she didn't know what to do.

George was sitting on a chair in the common room reading a book, and Natalia grabbed his hand and dragged him up the stairs and into the Sixth Year Boys' dorm wordlessly.

"Fred kissed me," Natalia said, plopping herself onto his bed and burying her face in the pillow.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" George asked, his eyebrow raised.

"I don't know," Natalia explained. "I think I like him... actually I'm pretty sure that I like him a lot. I just don't know if I want to ruin anything. You guys are like family. What if Fred and I don't work out and then I have to give you guys up because of it? I don't want to risk ruining everything and losing everyone close to me because of it."

"Calm down, Talia. You're my best friend. You are literally a sister to me and nothing will ever change that," George reassured her.

"Don't be silly George. He's your twin. If he doesn't want to be around me, then he's not going to let you be around me," Natalia explained. Her eyes began welling up with tears. "I don't know what to do."

"Give him a chance, Talia. He really does care about you. Go to the ball with him. If you don't want to date him, tell him. Things will be awkward for a while but everyone will get over it. What's the worst that could happen?" George said.

Natalia shook her head. "I don't know... I just don't know." She got up off the bed and began walking towards the door. "If you see Fred, will you apologize to him for me? I need some time to think everything over."

A couple weeks went by before she began talking to Fred again. She didn't mean for it to happen because she really did want to talk to him, but she didn't know what she would say. She began sitting in the front row for lessons, sitting with Harry, Ron, and Hermione at meals, and her free time was spent in the common room reading books. If he came into the common room, she would go upstairs to her dormitory. If she were to be honest, she greatly missed her best friend.

Exactly two weeks before the Yule Ball, she walked up to the twins while they were walking out of a Transfiguration class and asked, "Hey Fred, do you think that I could uh... talk to you? In private?"

"Oh, sure," Fred said, surprised. His eyes were wide as he followed her to the side of the hallway.

"I'm really sorry, Fred... I don't know what happened to me, but I freaked out. I like you, I really do... and I was wondering if you would... want to go to... the Yule Ball with me?" Natalia asked, feeling more nervous than she had ever been before in her life, even when facing the dragon a few weeks prior.

"Oh Merlin, Talia. I'm sorry... I really am, but Angelina's already agreed to go with me," Fred apologized, not making eye contact with her.

"O-okay... no big deal. I hope you have fun with her," Natalia said, walking away as she felt a lump in her throat and her eyes well up with tears. She began walking in the opposite direction of him before he could tell that she was crying and in the process ran straight into Oliver Wood. It wasn't really surprising because she had been looking down at the ground, but this collision had caused the pair to fall onto the ground. "Sorry Oliver! I wasn't watching where I was going and I just kind of ran right into you."

"That's quite alright," Oliver said, standing up and reaching a hand out to her. She took it and he helped her to stand up. "I wasn't exactly watching where I was going either. While we're both here, I actually had a question for you."

"And what would that question be?" She asked, wiping her eyes to make sure any stray tears were long gone. She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, if you didn't already have a date, I was wondering if you'd like to accompany me to the Yule Ball. You wouldn't believe how hard it is for a bloke to get a date and well... we're pretty good friends. I mean, I understand if you already have a date but it'd be nice." He was rambling which caused Natalia to laugh.

"Oliver, I'd love to go to the ball with you. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is for a girl who's just battled a dragon to find a date. I suppose guys are a little afraid of that," Natalia said, smiling at him.

"Great, that's awesome. I can't wait," Oliver said, smiling back at her. With Fred long out of her mind, she almost skipped to her next class. If he didn't want to go with her, it didn't matter anymore because she was going with Oliver Wood. It was honestly surprising to Natalia that he didn't already have a date. He was quite attractive and definitely was a ladies' man within the Hogwarts body. He had a great body from Quidditch and was a total gentleman. She figured she would have a great time with him. No, it didn't matter that she wasn't going with Fred. She didn't need to think about him.


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Thanks to everyone sticking with this story! I think that it's really picking now and I'm so excited to share the rest of the story with you! Enjoy.**

Two weeks flashed by and ever since Oliver had asked her to the ball, she had been occupying the time she would have spent with the twins with him. He was good company. She could simply be sitting at a table in the common room with the both of them doing homework and she would enjoy his company. He stayed up late with her when she couldn't sleep, which was becoming more and more often lately, and didn't mind her waking him up early even if they went to bed late. He even held hands with her sometimes as they walked together through the hallway. She didn't know if a relationship was developing, but if there was then she didn't mind it.

On this particular day, they were sitting in the common room on the couch. It was midday on Christmas and she was leaning against the arm of the couch with her legs across his lap reading a book while he was lightly dozing off. She was reading another one of her Muggle books and was particularly enjoying it. This one was new and she had just opened in that morning. It had been her gift from Hermione and she was glad the girl knew of her love for Muggle books. There was snow falling from the sky but it wasn't a very heavy snowfall and it made for a nice Christmas Day.

She had received gifts from Harry, Hermione, all of the Weasleys including Fred, whom she hadn't spoken to since she had asked him to the Yule Ball. He sent her a box of chocolates with an apology note. She ignored the apology note and was now eating the chocolate as she read. It wasn't that she didn't want to accept Fred's apology – she missed her best friend more than ever and wanted them to be like they were before – she just didn't know how they would ever be able to go back to normal after what had happened to the pair in the last month. Besides, she didn't have time to worry about things like that. If it was meant to happen, it would happen on its own.

She still had the tournament to worry about, although the last two weeks it had gone into the back of her mind. She had no idea what the golden egg meant. If she opened it, it merely screeched at her and sounded like a banshee. Even though the Second Task was eight weeks away, she didn't know if she would be able to figure out what the golden egg's screaming meant. There had to be some way to make it stop screaming and to make it actually say something to her. She would be doomed in the Second Task if she didn't figure it out.

Oliver's eyes opened and then he blinked a few times before rubbing them and yawning. Natalia put her bookmark into her book to save her spot before looking up. "Good morning, sleepyhead," she said, laughing and ruffling his hair.

"Morning," he said, stifling another yawn. "Are you excited for the ball tonight?"

"I'm excited about everything except dancing in front of everyone. What if I fall flat on my face?!" She exclaimed. She wasn't exactly the most graceful person at Hogwarts and especially when dancing next to Fleur, she would look like a fool. She had imagined numerous humiliating scenarios about dancing I front of everyone at the ball and they all ended up with her running out of the ball crying from embarrassment.

"I won't let you fall," Oliver said. "You just have to follow my lead. My mum made me take dance lessons when I was younger."

"Do you still have that dancing instinct in you?" Natalia said, smirking at him.

He returned the smirked and replied with, "Of course I do. Once a dancer, always a dancer..." His smirk disappeared. "Probably not, actually, but I won't let you fall and make a fool of yourself."

"Good," Natalia said.

"Even if you fall, you can bring me down with you. That way we'll make fools out of ourselves together." Oliver changed the subject then to something that Natalia didn't really want to talk about and also didn't think that he would ever bring up. "How are things with you and Fred?"

"Oh, they're alright I suppose," she lied, popping a chocolate from the box into her mouth. This was definitely something she didn't want to talk about.

"Are you sure?" Oliver asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "I think you're lying."

"Everything's alright, Oliver. It doesn't even matter... we don't need to talk about something like this on Christmas. Let's just worry about the ball," Natalia said, sighing. "We're going to have a good time tonight even if I am a terrible dancer and the clumsiest person you've ever met. I'm really excited, just so you know."

"Do I have high expectations for tonight?" Oliver said, grinning at her.

"Of course do you," Natalia joked, laughing. "I expect nothing but perfection from you, Mr. Oliver Wood."

"I'll keep it in mind," Oliver said. Natalia was about to ask him if he pinky promised that he would keep perfection in mind, but had to stop herself; the only wizard that knew about that Muggle tradition was Fred. Oliver would look at her as though she was speaking a different language. This made her realize how much she really miss Fred, although she would never admit it to anyone but herself and maybe Ginny. She felt a sick feeling in her stomach when she realized this, but she tried not to think about it. She would deal with it tomorrow after the ball. Not tonight.

"Do you want to head down to the Great Hall and get something to eat? It's almost eleven and neither of us have eaten anything yet today," Natalia offered, swinging her legs off of Oliver's lap so that her feet were on the floor.

"Sounds good to me," Oliver said. They stood up, walked out of the common room and started making their way down to the Great Hall. After they ate a small brunch - no one wanted to waste their appetite on any other meal besides the feast at the ball besides the younger students - Natalia and Oliver decided to go on an early afternoon flight at the insistence of Natalia.

They took a quick flight around the castle because it was so cold, but it was nice. They intertwined their fingers and flew extremely close to one another and even though this meant they had to fly a little bit slower, neither of them minded.

-

Fred and George walked out of the castle donning caps, scarves, gloves and jackets. Normally they didn't dress properly for the weather, but with snow falling they were sure to get cold extremely quickly. Fred took a look into the sky for a moment to admire the falling snow, but instead saw two figures on broomsticks flying extremely close to one another. He wasn't sure but he thought that they might have been holding hands. He couldn't have mistaken the figure on the left for anyone else; he knew it was Natalia. He figured the other was Oliver Wood, whom before this Fred had had no problems with. He'd been getting a little too friendly with Natalia for Fred's liking, however. Fred frowned and nudged George before pointing up to them.

"What gives him the right to go off and go flying with her?" Fred asked.

"Well, Freddie, I hate to say this but she can do whatever she wants," George said, frowning.

"But Georgie, this isn't how it's supposed to happen. That should be me," Fred said.

"Freddie, I really don't like arguing with you, but I think you need a voice of reason here. I know that you tried to kiss her and that you both liked each other and that should have meant that everything would have worked out, but it didn't. After that, you shouldn't have asked Angelina to the ball, though. I think that's what's got her so angry. When she asked you, she had made up her mind that she liked you and you kind of shattered that," George said. Fred thought that this sounded very unlike his twin to say but didn't think that he was necessarily wrong.

"I don't know, Georgie. I freaked out and I didn't know what to do. I thought that she was never going to come around so I asked Angelina. I really shouldn't have but I wasn't going to go back to her and tell her nevermind and that I was going with Talia." After Fred said this, a long silence fell over them as they walked across the grounds. Fred broke the silence a few minutes later by asking, "Do you think everything will work out in the end?"

"Yeah Freddie, I really think so. Talia's stubborn but everything will work out," George assured his twin, nodding his head.

-

Natalia stood in the full length mirror of the Third Year Girls' dormitory examining herself in it. She had opted to getting ready in Ginny's dormitory rather than her own because everyone in hers would be preparing for the Yule Ball. Five girls preparing in a small space like the dormitories at Hogwarts didn't sound like a pleasant experience; instead, it was simply herself and Ginny getting ready. It was much easier for everyone.

"I don't know, Gin. What do you think I should do with my hair?" Natalia said. Her long dark brown hair lay across her shoulders currently, but she has having difficulty deciding what to do with it.

"Well, there's a lot of detail in your robes, so I think something as simple as possible would be better than some crazy thing. You don't want too much going on in one outfit," Ginny decided. "Maybe just a simple bun with some curls coming off the sides." Natalia decided that it was simple enough and began searching for a brush to put her hair up. Ginny interrupted her by asking, "Why don't you just charm your hair to go up?"

"I don't know, there's still some things I like doing the Muggle way... my hair is one of them," Natalia said, finally finding a brush. She began to brush her hair and pull it back into a tight bun, leaving a little bit of hair down in the front. "You know, when I got my Hogwarts letter, one of the things I thought I was going to miss out on in the Muggle world was prom... but this is better than any prom I could think of." Ginny had been explained the concept of prom far too many times by Natalia and so she didn't question her best friend at all when she brought this up.

"I never imagined I'd be wearing dress robes though. I was thinking more like a princess dress, but these are gorgeous too." She pointed to her dress robes that were hanging up on one of the posts of Ginny's bunk. Ginny was too busy charming her hair to curl itself to respond to Natalia, but she didn't mind. She enjoyed that Ginny didn't care if she rambled on about the Muggle world... plus Ginny's hair was going to look gorgeous once she finished charming it.

Before she knew it, the pair were finished doing their hair and makeup – Ginny was significantly faster than Natalia because she wanted to use magic – and were putting on their dress robes. Ginny looked absolutely stunning in her pale pink dress robes and they fit her absolutely perfectly. Natalia wondered if Ron had to sacrifice wearing his frilly and lacy dress robes so that Ginny could wear these pink ones.

"Ready to head down?" Ginny asked her, grabbing the small pale pink clutch that matched her dress robes perfectly.

"Ready," Natalia said, smoothing out her forest green ones one last time in the mirror before they decided to leave the dormitory.


End file.
